Obituary: Madhukar Anant Rege, 92, Longtime Newton Resident

NEWTON, MA – Madhukar Anant Rege passed away at age 92, on September 20th, 2016, after a long illness and a long, full life on three continents.

Born in Ratnagiri on the Konkan Coast of India, he had a happy, active childhood. From an early age he loved drawing and painting and eventually earned a Diploma in Architecture at the J.J. School of Art in Bombay, after apprenticing for a year with the master watercolorist Sawlaram Haldankar. In 1949, at age 25, he set sail for England with the help of his eldest brother Vinayak, where he successfully sat the R.I.B.A. (Royal Institute of British Architects) examination and then complete a post-graduate Diploma in Town Planning.

It was in England that he met and married Gladys Sharp on July 4th, 1953, and, after the birth of their first daughter in 1954, returned to India, where he took up a lectureship in Architecture at the newly formed Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, West Bengal. He was to stay at I.I.T. for 14 years, aside from a year’s leave in London and a three-year period in Athens, Greece where he worked with the pioneering Doxiadis Associates, after which he returned to Kharagpur as Professor and Head of the Department of Architecture and City Planning.

In 1969 he migrated to the United States, first as a SPURS (Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies) Fellow at M.I.T. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then as a city planner for the City of Newton and eventually as a planner for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Communities and Development, where he worked in the Main Street Program on downtown revitalization of Mass. cities and towns. He also lectured at the Boston Architectural Center. When his wife and daughters joined him in 1970, he moved first to Brookline, then to Newton and, upon retirement in 1993, settled with Gladys in Amherst. After retirement he returned to his first passion, painting, which he had kept up throughout his life, filling his home with beauty.

He was a true Renaissance man: a lifelong reader, always with his head in a book, but also an avid gardener. For many years he practiced yoga regularly. He made toys for his children and most of the furniture for his family, taught himself leatherwork, loved philosophical and political discussions, music, swimming, tennis, and cooking and was a staunch Democrat, making sure to vote, by absentee ballot, even during his last illness.

He leaves behind Gladys, his loving wife of 63 years; daughters Josna Rege, in Amherst and Sally Rege Carroll, in North Reading, Massachusetts; grandsons Nikhil, in New York City, and Tyler, also from North Reading, currently studying at UMass Amherst; sisters Kumud Rege and Sunita Kulkarni, and brothers Prabhakar and Sadanand Rege, all in Mumbai, India; many loving nieces and nephews, brothers- and sisters-in law, and fast friends in India, England, and the United States. A great loss to us all, but a life well lived.

Beers & Story Belchertown Funeral Home has been entrusted with the arrangements. For details and to sign an online guest book, please visit www.beersandstory.com

Obituary submitted by Sally Carroll