Suryanarayana Lingamneni

Our dearly beloved father, husband, brother, and friend, Suryanarayana Lingamneni, peacefully passed away surrounded by his family on December 30, 2023. Being the thoughtful soul he has always been, he chose the time of his death to fall when the family had already planned time off to be together, giving us all time to say our goodbyes. Even at the end, he gave us that smile we are all very familiar with.  With him at his passing was his spouse of 62 years, Mrs. Rajeswari (Yarlagadda) Lingamneni; his two daughters and sons-in-law, Anuradha and Prasad as well as Anila and Srinivas; his adopted son, Choudhary; his daughter-in-law, Rajeswari (of the late Vasu); and his seven grandchildren, Rahul, Kaavya, Saagar, Rohit, Prashant, Sneha, and Pooja.

Suryanarayana came from very humble beginnings. He was born in Dondapadu in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, to Satyanarayana and Satyavathi. He is the oldest of five children. Sury is survived by his brother, Jaganmohan Rao (and sister-in-law Uma); his sisters, Swarna (and brother-in-law Prasad) and Subhashini; and was predeceased by his sister, Ratna Kumari.

Suryanarayana studied Mechanical Engineering at Andhra University in Vishakhapatnam  and received his Master’s in Power Engineering at Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore at the young age of 21.  He began his career at Heavy Engineering Corporation, Ranchi, and soon transferred to Indian Atomic energy. Through his 30-year career in India, he rose to a very high-level position at the nuclear powerplant in Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu. Suryanarayana was given an executive position at the power plant in Kaiga, but soon after took early retirement in order to move along with his wife to the USA to be closer to his children and support them as their families began to grow.

Suryanarayana worked very hard to qualify and pass his professional engineering exams in the USA, no easy feat at that age and many years from his formal training!  He then embarked on a second career in the USA and retired in 2013 as a highly respected and sought-after consulting engineer in the oil and gas sector. His proudest achievement, though, was that during his second career, Mr. Lingamneni always supported his children and spent many weekends driving between, Midland, Ann Arbor, Columbus, Cleveland, and Milwaukee to support them and his newborn grandchildren. The time spent with the children cemented a very strong bond, and all seven grandchildren rallied to support the family these past few days. Sury Tathu’s legacy will live on through them!

Mr. Lingamneni will be fondly remembered for his sweet disposition and his dedication to his family and friends. We will all remember that beautiful smile he shared generously with everyone he met.

The family would like to thank the community at Sunrise Senior Living of Buffalo Grove for making his last sixteen months comfortable, and his many friends for their kindness and support.

A family focused cremation is scheduled for January 3rd at the Davenport Family Funeral Home and Crematory in Lake Zurich Illinois.

Dinam will be on January 12th at home, and a memorial for family and friends will be held on January 13th; the venue will be announced shortly.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks you to consider making a donation to your local Alzheimer’s association or favorite charity.