Family maintains son's legacy

From working on large projects, to tackling 200-mile bike rides or just helping his father get medical attention, Mohan is described by his family as having the ability to move mountains almost effortlessly. His attitude was always positive and, no matter how successful he was, there was always room for improvement.

This summer he decided to become a better swimmer. He spent a couple afternoons swimming laps. People walking by remembered him swimming on Wednesday, May 17. Soon after, however, he was being pulled from the water and revived. His heart stopped beating long enough that some brain damage probably occurred. Mohan spent almost four weeks in the hospital before an infection finally took his life on June 11.

During his stay in the hospital, his family learned just what kind of impact Mohan had on the world in his 30 years as people flew in from around the world to visit and support him. They might have lost their loved one, but now the Mohan family made it their goal to keep his dream of access alive.

"I’ve never met anyone who asks you, ‘what do you think?’ People ask it but they don’t mean it sincerely. He genuinely believed everyone had something to add,” said sister-in-law Hema Sareen Mohan.

Mohan spent the first few years of his life in Florida and Michigan before moving to India with his family in 1985. He was faced with the task of learning to read and write Hindi. In 1994, he returned to the United States to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees.

He headed out to Silicon Valley after graduation to begin working with KANA Communications, located in San Mateo at the time. The company was one of the few to survive the dot-com era. Outside of work, he founded the Software Entrepreneurship Lecture Series consisting of the MIT Alumni Club of Northern California.

His determination for success didn’t just apply to his professional life. When his father, Aditya Mohan, was diagnosed with kidney failure while still living in India, Mohan sprang into action.

"It was clear [if he stayed in India] he was eventually going to pass. There’s not much they could do for him there. But Anuj was such a selfless ‘hard charger,’” said his older brother Neal Mohan.

In a matter of six weeks, he was able to get his parents back into the country and at Stanford Hospital in touch with doctors who could help. Just six months ago, Mohan’s father got a transplant. He became an active advocate for the National Kidney Foundation.

In 2005, Mohan decided to go for his master’s degree in business at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He was at home for the summer when he passed. During his time in the hospital, people flocked to pay their respects and share their experiences. Many of those stories were shared on a Web site created to keep people informed of his condition while he stayed in the hospital.

Even people he’d rarely met left messages of praise.

Warren Ruder joined the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity at MIT after Mohan left the school. Ruder was rush chair and had contacted previous chairs to get advice.

"Most folks will give you advice from a ‘here’s how not to screw up rush/the house’ perspective. Not Anuj. I remember him asking me to see if I was going all right and trying to find out how I was holding up. Of course Anuj cared about the house, but he effortlessly found a way to care about the individuals first,” he wrote.

It was this sort of attention to others and desire to help those around him that inspired the idea for a scholarship fund in his name.

"He was always finding the good in people. ... He believed if you give people a chance good will emerge from them,” said Neal Mohan.

The family hopes the scholarship can start to be given out next year but will need to wait until enough money is accumulated to create an endowment. But even if only a few students benefit from the money each year, the family hopes those students can continue on to better the world the way Mohan would have.

"I just hope people hear his story then wake up and think, ‘how can I be a better person?’” said Hema Sareen Mohan. "Because every day I think how can I be better because of him.”

For more information about the Anuj Mohan Scholarship Fund visit www.anujmohan.com.

Heather Murtagh can be reached by e-mail: heather@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 105. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.<