An innovative and multi-faceted engineer

Don Gunasena Athukorala passed away peacefully in Sydney on February

22 at the age of 99 years and nine months. His funeral takes place on March 5 at 4.30 p.m. in Sydney.

D.G. Athukorala was a onetime Chairman of the State Engineering Corporation following the legendary previous Chairman A.N.S. Kulasinghe. He joined the SEC in 1962 when it was formed and soon became deputy to Mr. Kulasinghe. The SEC was at that time the choice of young engineers who noticed the pioneering work done under the guidance of Kulasinghe and Athukorala and chose to join.

After his retirement from the corporation he assumed the post of Director of the Headworks Division of the Mahaweli Authority and became the founding director.

Apart from his prowess in the field of engineering he somehow found the time to write a short treatise on the Buddha’s principle of Relativity which is based on the doctrine of Paticca Samuppada or dependent arising. This book is regarded as a brave attempt to throw some light to solving the mystery of the combination of thought, memory, emotion, intellect and consciousness that we refer to as the mind. He was 86 when he authored this book.

Don Gunasena gained his Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of London in 1950. He acquired his professional qualifications and membership from the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE) of UK in 1955 after finishing his practical training at Wilment Brothers & Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick and

Partners.

In the 1960s the government began a programme of rapid industrialization and the SEC undertook huge industrial complexes such as factories for steel, tyres and cement. The SEC was responsibe for constructing the Colombo Planetarium and also constructed the hemispherical shell for the famous chaitiya at Kalutara.

After a change of government, he left for the UK and worked for Sir William Harrow & Partners with a short stint as a field civil engineer with Esso Petroleum in Libya. In 1972 on his return to Sri Lanka he worked for the Mahaweli Development Board and in 1977 he rejoined the State Engineering Corporation for the Accerated Mahaweli Diversion Scheme and public housing programmes under the Gam Udawa initiative.

Don Gunasena will be remembered by civil engineers as competent and innovative engineer who introduced modern construction techniques to the country. He undertook all these engineering projects with flair and took an abiding interest in developing the professional capabilities of young engineers who worked alongside him.

Prof. Lakshman Jayatileke who was Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and later Vice Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya had this to say about Athukorala: “Above all Don Gunasena Athukorala will be remembered for his pristine character with uncompromising integrity and good intent. His technical competence combined with integrity made him exemplary for future generations of engineers.”

I first got to know him many years back. That was the era when proposed marriages were almost the order of the day. I distinctly recall the day he walked into my mother’s home at 200, Havelock Road to meet my sister Iranganie who very shyly came to the verandah. The rest is history.

They had three children- Aravinda, who is in the UK who set up his own institution Korde Associates Ltd (KAL); Ruvini, a double accountant who was the one who spent most of her time looking after her father and the youngest Prasanna, an investment banker who with Ruvini shared the responsibility of looking after and caring for their father so devotedly

May he attain the supreme bliss of Nirvana.