This is a page in honour of my father, Dr.S.D. Malaiperuman, PhD. December 29th,1901-February 4th, 1984. This page is a link to a website under construction.
He was born in Palamkottah in South India.His mother had been reading the biography of the Danish missionary Christian Frederick Swartz when she was expecting him and he was named after the missionary.When he was a small boy, he used to watch the frequesnt fumigation of the chicken sheds to get rid of insects.He tried it himself and managed to burn the chicken shed down. The family later moved to Coimbatore and later to Madras. His father had studied Law in England and became a High Court Judge. His mother was one of the first Indian women to go to college though she sat protected by a screen from the male students at lectures.
My father had 4 brothers and five sisters all of whom did well.
The eldest Annan, became Principal of Vellore Medical College, the second brother Davy became a vet, Isaac became a doctor specializing in chest conditions and Teddy became a medical librarian. Mary and Elsie went to the university in England to train as teachers and Elsie who specialised in Maths became a headmistress. Mercy became a gynaecologist, Kitty studied physics at Vassar but died tragically young and the youngest is Chandra who went to college, became a teacher of physics and chemistry and also became the mother of a cardiologist and mother in law of a distinguished orthopaedic surgeon. Many of my fathers nephews and nieces (16 in all) also entered the medical profession though none of his own children did.
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My father studied theology and later on studied philosophy at the University of Chicago where he attained his Ph.D and met his future wife, Marjorie Luetscher who was studying music at North Western University.
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He returned to India and his wife-to-be bought a round the world ticket in case she found India too exotic and alien. However she found she liked it and cashed in the part of the ticket which would have taken her home via Japan and San Francisco.My father meanwhile worked for the YMCA who had supported his studies in the USA . War soon broke out and he was kept busy running the "Fort Hut" a social club for soldiers based at Fort St George in Madras while my mother became head of Western Classical Music at All India Radio
the story continues
Below is a link to his biography written in verse and recited at his 80th birthday, a link to his grandson, Jey Malaiperuman's website and some other sites:
Eightieth birthday poem-
Eightieth birthday poem-
Cathy's Web Page
Jey's Site
Elizabeth Slater's Page.
His daughter's story of Kodaikanal, South India.
