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Sumit’s influence continues to be felt in our lives. My career and life has benefited by what Sumit did for me at a critical time. In my life. I am not alone. Many others from the Bell Labs days can confess to his very tough approach to coaching and management. Sumit taught me focus and excellence.

He continues to be missed 

Happy Birthday in heaven my dear friend 

Continue to rest in eternal peace 

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Mrs Roy

I extend my hear felt Condolences on demise of Sumit which I learnt today.

I was at IIT during time Sumit was there

I have met you personally to seek advise about my Schizophrenia brother

Dr. Prakash C Kalra

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I personally believe grief is one's own and is not for sharing (in fact it's foolish to think that it can be) nor for demonstration. This is particularly true for Sumit who was a devout follower of Rabindra Nath Thakur. He had been my friend (and that's an accident to me than a right for being fellow for four years) loving and looking after my intransitive needs. Alas, that current is now just a reservoir.

  • I met Sumit in Chicago area either at Dipak Roy or Bhaskar Banerjee's apartment. He was with his lovely wife Bithi.  Sumit just got his PhD from  Illinois Institute of Technology and joined the Bell Labs.  I was still a starving grad student at Northwestern.  I was told that he was the son of legendary actor Bikash Roy of the Bangla films. Of course I knew, meaning have seen numerous  movies of  Bikash Babu. Sumit was tall, somewhat serious type gentleman with a pipe hanging from his mouth. I exchanged a few words as I was more awed by his sombre personality than anything else. We have met several times. Then our path diverged. Many years later we met in northern NJ, as I was living in Berkeley Heights,  next to Mountain side where he lived.  We met several times and by then Sumit had retired from AT&T. I was dean at NJIT Business School that was quite new. As   management of information system was getting hot then, I thought that our students without  much technical background must know some technical aspects of computer technology. So I asked Sumit if he would join us.  Sumit was surprised and said that he was technical man what can he teach the business students. My reply to him that he ought explain the technology behind the information systems, so that our students will be more savvy than others. Sumit joined us and he became a very popular professor.  He developed  the e-commerce course, e-commerce was then just coming into existence.  Thus we built a closer bond. Thereafter retirement Sumit and I started to  talk about various books on phone.  During last  several years our phone Adda became a daily routine lasting for hours. Sometimes he would call or I would call. These conversations led me to discover  Sumit.  How learned he was! He had a grasp of many subjects, from literature to Indian philosophy to music. Of course I avoided discussing science with him as I repeatedly told him that was beyond me. Sumit loved Rabindranath. Once I tried  to quote a few lines, of course incorrectly. When he pointed out how I was incorrect, I shrugged it off.  He got angry and said in Bengali " no fooling with Tagore". When Covid was ramping us, he warned me and said "be care careful, if you are gone, who I will have my daily Adda". Now,  with whom will  I have my daily Adda without you, Sumit?

প্রথমে শ্রদ্ধার্ঘ্য নিবেদন করি তাঁর পুণ্য আত্মার প্রতি। চিরশান্তি লাভ করুন তিনি।

তাঁর স্মৃতিতে সৃষ্ট ওয়েব সাইট সত্যিই একটি অবদান। কিন্ত দুঃখ হল বাংলা তারিখ ব্যবহৃত হল- বাংলাদেশের জাতীয় প্রথমেই অনুসারে! পশ্চিমবঙ্গের ব্যবহৃত পঞ্জিকা  গৃহীত হল না!  বাংলা তারিখ নিয়ে বিবাদ বিসংবাদ রয়ে গেল।  সংশয় থাকলে ভারতের জাতীয় পঞ্জিকা শকাব্দ (মেঘনাদ সাহার সৃষ্ট) নিতে পারতেন।

My interview of Sumit Da about his illustrious father (in Bengali, without subtitles, as of now) in its entirety.  I will eventually put an abridged version on YouTube with some of the film clips if possible.  But for now, here is the full interview. I am sure that all of us who have missed him, it will be nice to see it in full.
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One of my class-mates in BE College Sanat Nandy told me this story recently. He used to stay in Sengupta Hall in the college, and his and Sumit’s rooms were close to each other’s. One of the songs that Sumit liked was Aaj Jyotsna Rate Sabai Gechhe Bone. Sumit used to sing this song frequently in a loud and open voice. He sang very well. Sanat asked me to sing this song in a meeting and narrated the story.

   Arun Chatterjee

I was a student of Sumit Roy at NJIT in the summer of 1999. I had newly arrived in the US the year before, and it was an exciting but difficult period in my life as a poor graduate student. 

I was fortunate to take his MIS class, for which he was an adjunct professor. Prof. Roy was a fantastic teacher and explained difficult concepts effortlessly. More than that, he always had time to chat with us and answer our questions. He introduced himself as Shumit. "S as in sugar", as he used to say, which I actually use when I introduce myself (my name being Prasant but pronounced Prashant). 

Prof. Sumit inspired me to take up teaching and I'm also an adjunct professor at the Raritan Valley Community College. I looked up to him as a role model and I can say he made an indelible impression on me and my career. 

I'll always be grateful for the kindness Prof. Roy showed me all those years ago. 

Om shanti. 

Prasant Tangirala

Lakeside Crew
Lake Ontario
Lakeside Crew
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Sumit with Bob and Dolores He…
2015, Lake Ontario, NY
Sumit with Bob and Dolores Henn
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Summer Visit
2015, Lake Ontario, NY
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Annual Get-together of Associ…
2008, B.E. College Ex-Students Club, 2nd Avenue, CK Block, Sector II, Bidhannagar, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Annual Get-together of Association of Entrants to the college in the centenary year 1956. Here he propsed a block-booking for our final journey.
Annual Get-together of entran…
2008, B.E.College Students Association Premises; CJ Block, Salt Lake Kolkata
Annual Get-together of entrants to the college in the centenary year 1956.
get-tpgether
2008, Triangular park, Nilkamal Sengupta's flat
It is with great sadness that I discovered this announcement of Sumit Roy’s death.
I met Sumit when he transferred in to my business unit at Bell Labs as my Department Head. We were born the same year and we often joked about our place in the Chinese Zodiac having been born in the Year of the Dragon.
According to lore, people born in the Year of the Dragon possess a charismatic aura, overflowing with energy, highly intelligent, and generally very successful. Dragons are usually gifted, talented people who use their abilities to become powerful in their corner of the world. They make strong, decisive leaders who work tirelessly for success. Their perfectionism makes them demanding of others, just as they are of themselves. I am not sure about myself, but that certainly described Sumit. He challenged me to exceed expectations and promoted me twice, setting the stage for my eventual move from technical to the business side of the business unit.
I shall always be grateful to have known, and worked for Sumit. May he rest in peace.
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Swati & Chandi Sanyal wit…
2018, Burt, NY, USA
Swati & Chandi Sanyal with Sumit'da
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Sumit da was one year ahead of me in Presidency College and BE College. I pray for his soul to Rest In Peace.
Arun Chatterjee
Sumit and I go back a long way, growing up in the same neighborhood in Kolkata during our school days, attending the same high school and then bonding very closely when we were graduate students at Chicago - Sumit at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and I at the University of Chicago. Sumit used to come over most weekends, sleep in my room at the International House, and we and other Bengali students hanged around - that was a period of great decompression from the pressure of graduate students' lives. We maintained close contact after the Chicago days that Sumit often referred to as one of the best periods of his life. Recently, Sumit complained to me that he was having trouble eating and then I got updated by a school friend that Sumit was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. I was shell shocked but had hope - probably in psychological denial of the reality- that with all the modern medicine Sumit would come through. We maintained contact during this difficult period via brief e-mail exchanges. I was dumfounded by the shock when a school friend of ours called me to inform that Sumit has passed away.
Sumit was just not a close friend but someone whom I had admired and loved greatly, teased when I got the opportunity, and with whom I had a lot of overlapping interest in science and music; we could just spend hours together moving seamlessly from one topic to another.
Let me end this note with a recollection of Sumit's going to bed (i.e. sleeping on the floor in my room at the I-House) ritual. I had a good hi-fi set and a good collection of music of all kinds. Sumit brought two songs in one place that he would listen to, while smoking the last cigarette of the day, before laying down. These were: Shudhu tomar bani noi go he bondhu he priyo ... ; and Jakhan parbe na mor payer chinha ai ghate ... (both sang by Hemanta Mukhopadhyay).
Sumit will always be in my heart and thought - I am still waking up almost every morning thinking about Sumit and our days together, especially at Chicago.
Jiba Ganguly
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Bithi Boudi, Jo Jo and Orrbee, We are so heartbroken to hear about your terrible loss. Sumit da was my mentor during my graduate school at IIT. He was such a humble person. We used to exchange emails and he would always write in Bengali, I was astonished by his knowledge of Bengali literature. We enjoyed our days in Naperville specially Sapu misses those days at Bell Lab. I was fortunate to meet Jo Jo at a wedding at Los Angeles and we had a long chat about our days at Naperville. We will truly miss Sumit da. Our deepest condolences to you! Girish and Sapu
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B. E. College Alumni Association of USA is deeply grieved to miss our friend Sumit Roy
as he completed his life after a distinguished career in India and the USA and life long
humanitarian service. He graduated from B. E. College in Electrical Engineering and
completed Ph. D in the USA .He contributed his service to the world in technical progress
as a professor and leader of industrial research. He led Chicago Center to sponsor creation
of Scholarship Fund in B. E. College and donate to B. E. College Library.jointly with us.

I personally miss my friend Sumit, the brightest boy in our batch, as we started studying Engineering together in B.E. College, Shibpore. He came from a very rich and aristocratic
family of Calcutta and I came from a neighboring state with Government Scholarship. We happened to be in the neighboring rooms in Sengupta Hall. He was always very affectionate and friendly. We enjoyed our young life together with our different background. He was a great intellectual, talented, artist, singer and lover of fine arts.I represented college in long distance running and enjoyed swimming across the Ganges over the weekends. We appreciated each other like brothers. I envied him seeing the photo of his future wife Bithi on his
table as I did not have girl friend. He came to the USA in 1964 to do Ph.D. Six years later I migrated to the USA. My father-in-law was worried to approve quitting British Firm job and my wife’s medical residency in Calcutta. Sumit wrote a letter saying, “Don’t worry. You will stay in our house till you are settled”. On our way to Chicago, we were lucky to find a professional job near New York in 2 weeks and settled. Later on when we visited Sumit in Chicago we were overwhelmed with superb hospitality of Bithi and Sumit, the sweetest memory of our life.

We are also proud of his great service in India with his father famous Bikas Roy who
was a jewel in cultural and entertainment world of Bengal. Our association with all friends
and relatives around the world express the deepest condolence to his family and we
remember his love and service to humanity.

Shibaprasad Sircar
Ex-President of B.E. College Alumni Association of USA
61 Ray Avenue, Leonia, NJ 07605
shibasircar@gmail.com
(201) 233-8144
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B. E. College Alumni Association of USA is deeply grieved to miss our friend Sumit Roy

as he completed his life after a distinguished career in India and the USA and life long

humanitarian service. He graduated from B. E. College in Electrical Engineering and

completed Ph. D in the USA .He contributed his service to the world in technical progress

as a Professor and leader of industrial research. He led Chicago Center to sponsor creation

of Scholarship Fund in B. E. College and donate to B. E. College Library.jointly with us.


I personally miss my friend Sumit, the brightest boy in our batch, as we started studying

Engineering together in B.E. College, Shibpore. He came from a very rich and aristocratic

family of Calcutta and I came from a neighboring state with Government Scholarship.

We happened to be in the neighboring rooms in Sengupta Hall. He was always very

affectionate and friendly. We enjoyed our young life together with our different background

He was a great intellectual, talented, artist, singer and lover of fine arts.I represented college

in long distance running and enjoyed swimming across the Ganges over the weekends.

We appreciated each other like brothers. I envied him seeing the photo of his future wife Bithi

on his table as I did not have girl friend. He came to the USA in 1964 to do Ph.D. Six years

later I migrated to the USA. My father-in-law was worried to approve quitting British Firm job

and my wife’s medical residency in Calcutta. Sumit wrote a letter saying, “Don’t worry. You

will stay in our house till you are settled”. On our way to Chicago, we were lucky to find a

professional job near New York in 2 weeks and settled. Later on when we visited Sumit in

Chicago we were overwhelmed with superb hospitality of Bithi and Sumit, the sweetest

memory of our life.


We are also proud of his great service in India with his father famous Bikas Roy who

was a jewel in cultural and entertainment world of Bengal. Our association with all friends

and relatives around the world express the deepest condolence to his family and we

remember his love and service to humanity.


Shibaprasad Sircar

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