Nagardas Purushottam Gandhi died on 26th June, 1960, at his home in Devlali, India, at the age of 73.
He matriculated at Bombay University in 1903 and obtained the B.A. in 1907 and B.Sc. in 1910, securing the Sir James Fergusson Scholarship. He went on to take the M.A. degree in chemistry in 1911, and left Bombay for London as a Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai scholar to study at the Royal School of Mines. He was awarded the A.R.S.M. in metallurgy in 1914 and the Diploma of Imperial College.
Professor Gandhi took up employment in January, 1915, as mining engineer and metallurgist at the copper properties in Upper Burma of Jamal Bros. and Co., subsequently working for a few months as prospector for Tata Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., Sakchi, India, before his appointment as general manager of the wolfram mines at Tavoy, Burma, of Tata Sons and Co., Bombay.
He left in 1919 to begin an academic career which lasted for 23 years at Benares Hindu University as University Professor, and from 1923 was head of the department of geology, mining and metallurgy there, having started the first degree course in those subjects in India.
He retired from the professorship in 1942 and worked as consulting geologist and mining engineer for some years, his interests including antimony mines of Parekh Virani Mining Syndicate in Chitral, manganese mines of Jhabua Industries Co., and the National Engineering Works at Ahmedabad. In 1948 he started his own industrial research laboratory at Devlali, but ill health did not allow him to develop it fully.
Professor Gandhi joined the Institution as a Student in 1914, and was transferred to Associate Membership in 1918 and to full Membership in 1925. He was also a member of the Institution of Metallurgists, the Institute of Metals, and the Iron and Steel Institute, and of the American Society for Metals. He was an honorary member of the Bombay Metallurgical Society which he founded and of the Indian Institute of Metals with which it merged in 1957, and he was awarded the first John Taylor Memorial Medal for his distinguished service to metallurgical education in India. He held the office of President for 1935-36 of the Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Society of India, and was a member of the Mining, Geological and Metallurgical Institute of India. In 1933 he presided over the Geological Section of the Indian Science Congress.
Vol. 70, Trans IMM 1960-61, pp.677-678
