With profound grief and sorrow, we regret to inform the passing away of Rear Admiral SK Das at 82 years due to a sudden cardiac arrest.
He was residing at Block 3/506, Kailash Dham, Sector 50. Rear Admiral SK Das ‘Davy’ ‘ Nana kaka’ and ‘Dada’, had been very involved with the netizens of Kailash Dham, especially the little children whom he simply adored.
He was dearly respected and looked upon by many, as being the kind, compassionate, soft spoken, a thorough officer and a gentleman. At the very early age of 15, having stood first in the All India UPSC exams, he joined the NDA and had since then served in the Indian Navy for 34 glorious years. His specialisation was the ‘Gunnery’ cadre; in spite of being in charge of the booming loud guns and cannons onboard, he had the softest voice and demeanour.
During his illustrious career, he commanded various classes of Ships – Frigate, Brahmaputra class, Corvette, and a ‘Missile boat’. He also went on deputation, as the Naval Attache to Indonesia, and was also attached to Singapore in the same period. Soon after being commissioned in 1961, ‘Ops Vijay’ commenced, and he was deployed as part of the landing party for Goa’s liberation. Subsequently, before the 1971 war broke out, he was part of the very crucial patrolling, in the Bay of Bengal, defending the New More Island.
Ashore, Admiral Das had many appointments at the Head Quarters, and has been an alumnus of The National Defence College, Delhi. Before hanging his boots, he was the Chief Instructor at the DSSC (Defense Services Staff College) at Wellington, Tamil Nadu. In the beautiful climes of this lovely hill station, he also became the Prestigious ‘Master of the Fox hounds’, a title given to the horseman leading a very big group of horsemen, in equestrian parlance!
On promotion to the 2 stars rank, he continued all the ‘flag-rank’ appointments at the Eastern Naval Command, DSSC and the Head Quarters. In this interim he was bestowed with the Presidential Award of Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, by the then President, Shankar Dayal Sharma. His superannuation on 30 April 1995 took him to Gujarat, where he was the founder President of India’s first ever private Port at Pipavav (now known as the Reliance Defence). The port had Singaporean technical modern know-how for ship building and supplemented with ship breaking too.
Admiral Das’s retired life was quite a peaceful one at Kailash Dham. He kept busy with his leisurely walks, yoga, exercise, visiting friends, marketing, and his biggest passion – golf! He visited the society temple twice a day, come rain or shine! He was very fond of the helpers’ children, and spent a lot of time planning things for them.
Admiral Das is survived by his wife, Gitanjali, and children, Commodore Sushil, Sangita and Mitali. Their respective spouses (Sanjeeta, Admiral Vishwanathan, Guido Kuersteiner) and 6 grandchildren (Mrinali, Shaurya, Sameer, Rohini, Samuel and Benjamin).
