Dave Narasimhan

Dave Narasimhan (formerly Mandayam Chakravarthy Narasimhan) of Flemington, NJ passed peacefully on October 2, 2026. He was 82 years old. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Revathi, and his three children and their families, Sudi (Thaniya, and children Anya and Aran), Sandya (Joe), and Priya (Brian).

Dave was born in Bangalore, India in 1944 to loving parents M.C. Parthasarathy and M.J. Alamelammal. He was interested in science from childhood. After receiving a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering Pune, Dave left India in 1969 to pursue his PhD at Brown University. Newly married, alone in a new country, and living off only an academic stipend, Dave and Revathi began their lives in America.

Dave and Revathi were the first members of their respective families to move to the United States. As Dave was in the early stages of his career, other family members arrived from India in pursuit of higher education. Dave and Revathi took these family members under their wing, welcoming them with generosity and warmth and easing their way into life in this country.

In 1974, Dave earned his PhD in solid state physics and materials science. A fruitful career followed in which he continually gained and refined his considerable technical knowledge. Dave loved nothing more than the satisfaction of applying his mind to find a creative solution to a difficult technical problem. For much of his career, Dave worked for Honeywell (formerly AlliedSignal), authoring and patenting many inventions during his tenure there. In 1991, he received the Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award for his invention of a process to continuously cast amorphous metal in thin strips, creating metglas, a material now in widespread use in everything from common electronic devices to electrical transformers. After his retirement from Honeywell in 2002, he pursued patent law, becoming a patent agent and providing technical expertise as a consultant.

Dave and his family moved to Flemington, NJ in 1984, to the home where he lived until his passing. Over the decades, Dave and Revathi raised their children, loved and cared for many pets, hosted family, planted an extensive garden, became US citizens, and pursued their careers and friendships. Providing for his family and ensuring that they had the best was a great source of pride for him. Dave instilled in his children iconoclasm, contrarianism, the value of independent thinking, and a rejection of dogmas and orthodoxies. Dave was a character – a fiery force of nature, brutally honest and opinionated, with a childlike smile and big personality, unforgettable to anyone who met him. He will be deeply missed by those whose lives he touched, including his brothers Sriraman and Srinivas and their spouses, Dave’s in-laws, and many nieces, nephews, and their children.

Dave believed that science and engineering were the highest and most important of human endeavors. To honor him, instead of flowers or gifts, we welcome donations to Society for Science, an organization providing scholarships to STEM students. He also intensely loved his companion animals over the years, and to honor that love, we ask for donations to City of Elderly Love, a Philadelphia organization that saves elderly dogs and cats from the shelter system and allows them to live out their senior years in loving homes.

https://www.societyforscience.org/give/
https://www.cityofelderlylove.org/donate

The family will honor Dave with a Celebration of Life in November 2026. Please email narasimhan.family.celebration at gmail dot com if you would like to attend and have not already been contacted.