On Monday, March 16, at 3:30 p.m., in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, the Graduate School will hold a memorial Mass for Terrence J. Akai, senior associate dean of the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame, who died suddenly on February 28.
A native of Guyana, South America, Akai joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1976 as a research associate in aerospace and mechanical engineering who specialized in fluid mechanics. Holding concurrent appointments in that department and computer science and engineering, Akai taught a popular mathematics course based on a seminal textbook of which he was the author, Applied Numerical Methods for Engineers. He had received every possible teaching award at Notre Dame by the time he was appointed assistant dean of the Graduate School in 1994. As senior associate dean, Akai was principally responsible for graduate admissions, administering thousands of applications each year.
“Terry Akai was both colleague and friend to countless people at Notre Dame,” said Gregory Sterling, dean of the Graduate School. “His death is as much a personal as a professional loss for the Graduate School and the University as a whole, and we join our sorrow, thoughts and prayers with those of the Akai family.”
The Akai family has asked those interested in making donations in Dr. Akai’s name to consider a scholarship fund in the Graduate School for students from under-represented groups. Please send donations to:
The University of Notre Dame
c/o Development
1100 Grace Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Attn: Carol Hennion