the goan I network
PANAJI
Goa bid adieu to one of its eminent sons, Fr Romualdo D’Souza, SJ, a Padmashree awardee and an iconic founder of multiple B-Schools of repute including the Goa Institute of Management, at a solemn funeral service presided over by Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao at the Holy Family Church, Porvorim.
Fr Romualdo passed away on Friday morning at age 94 after which hundreds, including prominent Goan industrialists, academicians and State government officials besides his relatives and friends, attended the funeral service co-celebrated by dozens of priests.
His mortal remains were later laid to rest at the cemetery in Porvorim.
Apart from his exploits in the field of academia and management education in particular, Fr Romualdo was described as a priest of deep spiritual commitment in a deft homily delivered by the Jesuit Provincial Rev Fr Roland Coelho, SJ.
Fr Coelho also eulogised the eminent academic for his exceptional quality to accept events and reality even if adverse and in any circumstances.
Fr Romualdo, elder brother of the former chief minister, the late Dr Wilfred D’Souza, was ordained a Jesuit priest in the 1950s and rose to be the provincial of the Goa-Pune province in the late 1970s when he founded the Xavier Centre for Historical Research at Porvorim.
He earned himself iconic status nationally in the field of management education when he revived the fortunes of XLRI-Jamshedpur in the 1980s elevating it to the league of the country’s top 10 B-Schools and also established at the invitation of the Odisha government the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar.
On return to Goa in 1993, he founded GIM by bringing together diverse corporate leaders from Goa and knocking the doors of local business houses. He managed the institute until 2004.
In 2010, the Government of India conferred on him the Padmashree award in recognition of his services in the field of education.
Several prominent businessmen and academicians were part of the congregation at the Holy Family Church, Porvorim, and some paid their tributes including former Sesa Goa (now Vedanta) executive Chico de Lima, who was also later chairman of the State-owned Economic Development Corporation.
Floral tributes were placed at his cortege on behalf of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who sources said was unable to pay his last respect as the swearing-in ceremony of new Governor Satya Pal Malik was held around the same time at the Cabo Raj Bhavan.
