Prof. Atindra Mohan Goon Death – Dead | Obituary – Passed Away
Atindra Goon Death – Dead: A great loss was made known to InsideEko. As friends and families of the deceased are mourning the passing of their loved and cherished Atindra Goon.
Having heard about this great loss, the family of this individual is passing through pains, mourning the unexpected passing of their beloved.
This departure was confirmed through social media posts made by Twitter users who pour out tributes, and condolences to the family of the deceased.
Prof. Atindra Mohan Goon, the legendary professor of Statistics in India, passed away today at 7-20 pm. He was 90 years old, was bed-ridden and was suffering from dementia from August 2018.
Prof. Goon, from whom I have learnt Probability & Statistics during my 3 years of undergraduate studies at the St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta. Prof. Goon along with Prof. Milan Gupta and Prof. Bhagbat Dasgupta (the tallest trio in Statistics: Goon, Gupta, Dasgupta) were not only students of Prof. PC Mahalanobis (the father of Statistics in India) but were also founders of the subject along with him. The world of Indian statistics remembers them as the creator of the first indigenous textbook of statistics “Fundamentals of Statistics”. They wrote several more books to the reigning pantheon of texts, namely, An Outline of Statistics Vol-I & II; Basic Statistics (for students of other disciplines) and, of course, a reworked Fundamentals in two volumes. Interestingly, these books are still relevant and are the primary textbooks read by every student of statistics in India. The numerous students of Prof. Goon, Gupta and Dasgupta are scattered all over the world and established themselves as well-known statisticians!
Prof. Goon was first influenced by M N Roy’s philosophy of radical humanism during his early life of teaching at the Presidency College, Calcutta. When I met him at his house in Calcutta in December 2015, he reminisced those golden era of practicing radical humanism at the highest intellectual level and talked about personalities like Prof. Sibnarayan Ray, Prof. Amlan Dutta and others.
We were scared of his towering personality during our college days. In his class, he used to call one or two students to solve problems on the blackboard. We could hear the sound of our heartbeats just before he asked somebody among us to come in front of the blackboard and solve a problem. We were always tensed to think about “whose turn is next?” At the same time he was very close to our hearts too. He had great sense of humor. He used to call me “Bastu-Bhoot” since I played a character of a ghost of a house owner who doesn’t want to leave the house even after his death, in a college drama.
After several years from his college days, that “Bastu-Bhoot” went back to touch the root of his “Bastu” in December 2015. I touched his feet repeated times and prayed for his long & healthy life!
Prof. Goon passed away just before the Teacher’s Day. I’m very fortunate to have him as my Guru. He will be remembered in his books, his students across the world and his immense contribution in the Statistics education in India.
May his soul rest in Statistics!
We are still working on getting more details about the death, as a family statement on the death is yet to be released.