Subhash Desai's Obituary
Subhash G. Desai was born on February 22, 1947, in Gujarat, India, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. The youngest son of a poor farmer, Subhash’s dad Gulabbhai Desai valued education and travelled to East Africa to create a better life for his family as a school principal. From the age of 5 to 14, Subhash lived in Tanganyika (current day Tanzania), where his father ensured he received a quality education. Subhash later returned to India to complete high school and his pharmacy degree.
Following in his father’s footsteps in search of a better life, Subhash immigrated to the United States in 1974. In the US, he saved money to obtain his pharmacy license and then dedicated his life to being a pharmacist for the next 40 years. He enjoyed being a counselor to his customers and always lended a listening ear. Although he reached retirement age earlier this year, Subhash worked until the day he was admitted to the hospital.
In 1978, Subhash returned to India to find a bride. Within four hours of meeting, he got engaged to Bharti Desai, and they married a few weeks later before they returned to the US together. Even though they were strangers when they first got married, they grew to love one another deeply and were happily married for over 34 years. Throughout their married life, Subhash always placed his wife first. He fully supported and empowered her, including moving the family to Atlanta for her job and, later, starting her own accounting business.
Subhash is survived by his two children: daughter Morli who married Jim Schroder in 2011 and currently lives in Singapore, and son Kevan who is a second-year medical student. Subhash provided unconditional love and support to his children and, like his father, encouraged them to value their education and to pursue their dreams. He was a man of sincere patience not only with his children, but also with everyone he interacted.
Subhash enjoyed gardening, especially planting roses, rooting for the India cricket team, and listening to old Indian songs. He had a spiritual nature, enjoyed reading books, and believed in a life of quality not quantity, even if for a short period of time. Additionally, he was a kind and selfless man that always gave his time and money freely. Subhash’s legacy and philosophy for life was to not dwell on the past and not worry about the future but enjoy the present—and he did so until the moment he died.
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