Megha Shyam Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Megha Shyam Born November 15, 1938—died February 22, 2022 On Tuesday, February 22, 2022, Megha Shyam, age 83, passed away peacefully after a brief illness, surrounded by his loving family. Megha was a valued professional engineer, having worked for Hewlett Packard in Corvallis for13 years, where he was responsible for designing integrated circuits for early hand-held calculators and for HP computers. Later he was a successful entrepreneur, continuing to work with HP, Texas Instruments, and other electronics companies. Most notably, his life was characterized by love of family, many warm friendships, and devotion to his spiritual community. Megha was born in a small village in India as one of eight children, seven boys and one girl. He earned a degree in electrical engineering from Mysore University in Bangalore and electrical communication engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, also in Bangalore. In 1961, he was offered a fellowship at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, an offer which marked the beginning of a 60-year sojourn in the United States. After two years at Harvard, he transferred to Stanford University, where he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering. He introduced an innovation into the engineering curriculum at the time: an oral examination, so that students would be encouraged to develop the facility necessary to explain difficult engineering concepts in simple terms. He called his move to California “the best decision” he ever made in his life, as California was where he blossomed academically and found both the Bahá’í Faith and his wife of 43 years, Jeannie. In 1965, Megha encountered the Bahá’í Faith and his life changed dramatically. He became an active participant in the activities of his new-found faith and was quickly elected to the local governing council for Palo Alto, California. Soon thereafter, he was named to the board of the nearby Geyserville Bahá’í School. When highway 101 bisected the Geyserville property and it was acquired through eminent domain by the state of California, Megha worked with the Geyserville board to acquire and develop the property near Santa Cruz that would become Bosch Bahá’í School, Retreat and Conference Center. In 1972, he was appointed to a committee of the national Bahá’í office to expand the Bahá’í learning center system, a volunteer assignment that took him all across the US. He met and courted Jeannie Saylor Hendon after meeting her at a Bahá’í event in California. Soon Megha had an offer to work for Hewlett-Packard and, after nearly a year’s long-distance courtship, the two were married in June 1978 in Paradise, California; Jeannie and her two daughters from a previous marriage joined Megha in Corvallis where Megha and Jeannie spent their 43 years of marriage. A highlight of their life together was attending the 1986 dedication of the Bahá’í House of Worship (Lotus Temple) in Delhi, India. Megha retired from HP in 1990 to start a company of his own and spent the next six years traveling on behalf of the new venture. After he fully retired in 2002, Megha and Jeannie were able to travel to India for family visits and Megha filled his time with research into his Indian culture and studies of the Qu’ran. His greatest lifelong interest was supporting the education and capacity development of young people—a quality that no doubt emerged from his family’s close association with Mahatma Ghandi. He mentored many youth, and was always ready to help in any way he could, including preparing delicious Indian dishes for youth gatherings. Beyond serving in many capacities in the Corvallis Bahá’í community, Megha generously gave his time as a volunteer to the NAACP, Corvallis Ambassadors, We Care, Gifts for a Better World, the Corvallis MLK Commission, and the Corvallis Riverfront improvement task force, to name a few. He also derived great joy from his many friendships at Fitness over Fifty and his long-standing men’s group. He was preceded in death by his parents, all seven of his brothers, his stepdaughter Patti Fenner, and stepson Matthew Hendon. He is survived by his beloved wife Jeannie, his sister Padma Curam, stepdaughter Dr. Lorri Hendon (Adel Faridani), and their two children Stefan and Thea, grandchildren Samantha Vannatta and Brendon Fenner. In addition, he is survived by his sisters-in-law, K.S. Indu and Pushpa Sreeharsha; as well as these nieces and nephews: his sister Padma Curam’s children: Sridar, Ravi, Bharath, Krishna, and Meera; Shobhana Radhakrishna; Bharathi Narayan; K.R. Chandrahas; members of the Sreeharsha family: Vinod and Kavitha; Mamata and K.S. Sridhar; Curam Vardaraj; Uma Camasamudram; and many more spouses, children, and grandchildren of his nieces and nephews. Donations in honor of his service to the community can be made to the Linn Benton chapter of the NAACP.

Tributes

Megha Shyam

November 15, 1938 - February 22, 2022