Jayanta Kumar Ghosh (1937–2018)

Jayanta Kumar Ghosh, just JKG, to most of his friends was born on 22 May 1937 at Calcutta to Ambernath and Shanti Ghosh. His early years were mostly spent in and around Calcutta. He recalled, happy times spent at a large house with many cousins somewhere in the southern fringes of the city. He had fond memories of early school years at Hartley school in Bhowanipur. After his high school, he joined Calcutta University where much of his academic life took shape. He obtained B A degree in 1956 and M A in 1958 from the university. R. N. Bhattacharya, the eminent probabilist – a classmate and a friend from those days recalls ‘Even as a teenager Jayanta was a little shy and reserved. My special relationship with Jayanta was that among all our classmates and contemporaries, I was probably the only one who felt free to talk to him as a friend on various subjects outside of statistics or mathematics. Our other classmates seemed to be somewhat in awe of Jayanta’s intellect. We were both voracious readers of all kinds of literature – fiction and nonfiction. Every once in a while I would get some suggestions about a good book he had read (borrowed from the British Council Library in Kolkata). Even during our college days I would be impressed by his broad scholarship.’