Shreepad Wagle

Shreepad R Wagle passed away peacefully on Sunday January 12th, 2025. He was born on January 1st, 1930, in Kodibag, Karwar, Karnataka, India to Ramchandra and Parvati Wagle. He grew up in this small fishing village with his two brothers and three sisters on a coconut farm. He enjoyed climbing trees to harvest the coconuts, eating mangos from the trees in the yard and fishing at the edge of the family property.

After graduating high school from Gout High School in Karwar, he went to Fergusson College in Pune and then received his BS in Chemistry and Physics from Ruia College in Mumbai in 1952. He went on to get his MS in Biochemistry from the University of Bombay in 1955. He then came to the US to receive his PhD in Biochemistry and Nutrition from the University of Illinois in 1959.

He returned to India after graduation in search of a job. After a year, he decided to return to the US, this time to the Indiana University Medical School as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. By 1969 he had reached the rank of full Professor. In addition to teaching at the medical school, he did research on cancer and diabetes. He had over 150 publications in research journals and his work was referenced by numerous Nobel Prize winners.

During his career, he traveled and gave seminars across the globe. He retired in 1995 with the status of Professor Emeritus. During his retirement years, he enjoyed gardening, reading magazines, spending time with his grandchildren and returning each winter to his hometown where he could enjoy warm weather and fresh fish. He met and married Gulab in 1962. They enjoyed almost 60 years together in Indianapolis before her passing in 2022.

He is survived by his children, Kiran, Jyoti (Matt) Mottier and Ram (Jen), his grandchildren, Rebecca, Braden, Abigail (Jake), Saras and Sita, his great-grandson Caleb and his brother, Dileep. A celebration of Shree’s life will be held on Saturday March 29th, 2025 at Indiana Funeral Care, 8151 Allisonville Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46250. Visitation will be at 11 a.m., with a brief memorial starting at 12 p.m. For those who are unable to make it in person, you can view the memorial via Zoom beginning at 11:55 a.m. here: https://zoom.us/s/3176366464?from=join#success