Remembering Dr. Viswanathan Rajaraman and Mary Sundaram

Friends, family and colleagues are paying their respects and bidding farewell to a beloved Franklin Lakes couple less than a week after a single engine plane, carrying the pair, crashed at take-off from the , Ohio, shortly before 9 a.m. on June 19. According to friends, Dr. Viswanathan Rajaraman and Mary Sundaram  had attended a wedding.

Rajaraman and Sundaram will be laid to rest in the Redeemer Cemetery, in Mahwah, after their funeral which will be held in the main sanctuary at the Hawthorne Gospel Church on Route 208 North, in Hawthorne, on Saturday, June 25 at 10 a.m.  

Rajaraman had been a neurosurgeon and co-chief of neuro-oncology at the Hackensack University Medical Center, while his wife, Sundaram (or Mary V. as she was called by co-workers) had been employed at ICC Lowe, a medical communications firm in Parsippany. She had retired almost one month ago to start a foundation to help financially challenged students seeking to go to college. According to ICC Lowe friends and colleagues, the couple had already helped put 19 people through college.

“They were like angels and the two most giving and unassuming people you could meet. Together they were a team and it was as if their whole purpose in life was to help people,” said co-worker Karan Bredenbeck.

She explained that Sundaram traveled to India on a yearly basis to visit family and assist in the village clinic where, as a trained OBGYN, she would assist the locals with their medical needs.

“They never bragged about what they did. For example, every Thursday Mary would volunteer at an AIDS clinic in Newark. She would sit with the people, visit with them and pray with them,” said Bredenbeck. Sundaram’s actions and heart transferred into the work place as she became the “go to person” for illness or medical advice.

“When anyone was sick [in the office] you went to Mary V. She and her husband would become your buddies and follow up with you until the end,” said Bredenbeck.

Stacie Guirguis saw this first hand as her she and her husband Basil, an ICC Lowe employee, have been battling Basil’s stage-four brain cancer.

“Mary was a tremendous friend and she called me her little sister. She would call me every Thursday to see how my husband was doing,” said Guirguis. She explained that Rajaraman had been her husband’s doctor for two years and said “he saved my husband’s life twice and Mary saved my life” and their passing has left “a big hole.” 

“The world is going to be missing out on two tremendous people,” said Guirguis.

Co-worker Nicole Busch said Sundaram created a closeness with every person she met, and because of Mary’s personality and amiability “there was no such thing as a casual acquaintance.” Busch found out that Rajaraman, or Vishy was he was called affectionately, had been treating her sister’s husband for a brain tumor. 

“I had no idea at the time that he was Mary's husband! Vishy stayed up late into the night talking to my sister and brother-in-law about the pros and cons of the procedure.  He knew how much [my brother-in-law] Jeff wanted to take his daughter to Disney World and without that surgery, he had zero chance of making the trip.  Thanks to Vishy, Jeff agreed to the surgery, came through it without losing his speech (which had been a risk) and was able to go to Disney with his family,” said Busch. “I miss them both terribly and have never known such selfless, giving people.”

Carol Jones, another co-worker, shared another account of Sundaram’s kindness.

“We have a cafeteria and Mary used to go to get coffee. The cashier had been pregnant and had a baby, and Mary bought her a baby gift,” said Jones. “Mary was that kind of a person and we are all pretty broken hearted about [her passing].” 

Co-worker Janice Lester described Sundaram as a “very funny, cultured and vivacious” person.

“I remember one time she invited me to the opera when Vishy was unable to go,” said Lester.  “Whenever she would travel, she would constantly e-mail and describe what she saw in her travels.”

Lester said Sundaram by nature was a grateful person.

“She used to say, ‘I am finally able to give back to this country because it has given so much to me’,” said Lester.

As friends bid both persons farewell, Busch explained that the legacy of these two people will live on. 

“The only way to move forward from something like this is to learn from their strength and let it continue to be an inspiration,” she said.