A husband, a father, grandfather, a friend.

Karunattu George Kurian died on April 13, 2018 at the age of 78.

He was the first child born to Kurian George and Thankamma George on October 7, 1939 in Kottayam Dist, Kerala, India.

A mathematical statistician by profession and a soccer player in his youth, George Kurian received his first Master’s degree in Statistics in 1965 from Agra University. He worked as a statistician at the Indian Institute of Public Administration in New Delhi, India for 4 years.

Originally from Kerala, during their studies in Agra he met his future wife, Lyza, and they were married in 1967. In 1969, with a handful of dollars in his pocket and an enrollment in the Master’s Program in Mathematics at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, at a time when an East Indian was still confused with American Indian, he took a courageous trip to the United States. Bold and immediately affable, Kurian met his first friend in the states by cold calling the first recognizably Keralite-like name in the public phone book, a friendship that would last many decades.

After completing his Master’s degree in Mathematics in 1970, Kurian, Lyza, and their newborn son, Bobby, moved to Fort Collins, Colorado where he began his PhD program in Mathematics/Statistics at Colorado State University. Leaving the program to begin a career and support his family, Kurian took his first job at his one and only employer, the Colorado State Department of Human Services where he worked in varied capacities as a Mathematical Statistician, until his retirement 30 years later.

In an era before the common PC, he was known for doing challenging calculations in his head and reciting mathematical formulas as if prose and verse. Kurian would spend much of his leisure time exercising his green thumb in his garden, enjoyed staying abreast of current news and events, and played an instrumental role in the physical establishment of Saint Thomas Indian Orthodox Church in Lakewood, Colorado. While mischievous and tempered, he always had a warm smile and tender heart.

In 1979, Kurian and Lyza had their second child, Aimee. Married just short of 51 years, Kurian now joins his father, mother and youngest sister, Anila, in Heaven. Kurian is survived by his wife, Lyza, son Bobby (Radha), daughter Aimee (Shawn), grandchildren Sonali, Akaash, Roshan, sisters Kochaleyamma and Sosamma, brother Averachan, sister Mariamma and ageing uncles and aunts.