Dr. Ulhas Bajarang Andalkar, M.D. — a scholar, bookworm, musician, gardener, and world traveler - passed away at the age of 84 on February 24, 2025, at Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, WA, after a month-long hospital stay due to unexpected complications following a cervical spine surgery.

Ulhas was born October 2, 1940, in the small town of Mayani, India, and he shared a birthday with Mahatma Gandhi, born 71 years earlier. His name Ulhas comes from ancient Sanskrit and means "joy" or "delight”.

He was the 2nd of 4 children of Bajarang Maruti Andalkar, who was educated as a lawyer, and his wife Krishnabai. He was preceded in passing by his older brother Shivkumar, who passed from pulmonary fibrosis in 2008, and by his younger brother Girish, who passed from the same illness almost exactly a week before Ulhas. He is survived by his younger sister Vijaya Ravikumar, by his devoted wife of 54 years Anjali Andalkar, and son Amar Andalkar.

Ulhas was raised in the beautiful city of Pune in Maharashtra State. He attended the highly-regarded Fergusson College in Pune, followed by Baroda Medical College, graduating in 1966 with an MBBS, which is the medical degree under the British system equivalent to an American MD. He stayed in Baroda to complete an MD in 1970, which is an advanced research degree in that system.

He met his future wife at Miraj Medical College in 1970, where he was working as an assistant professor of medicine and she as a lecturer. They married in November 1971, and the family immigrated to the United States in 1972, initially settling in Cincinnati, Ohio. Subsequent moves followed on an annual basis, to Brooklyn, NY, then Medfield and Attleboro, MA, then Providence, RI, as Ulhas and his wife were forced to re-do their medical residencies after coming to America. He completed his fellowship in nephrology in Providence in June 1977.

The family then moved to Roanoke, VA, where Ulhas was a physician at a nearby hospital and also served as an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Virginia. He bought his first house in Roanoke in October 1977, where he also started his first private medical practice in internal medicine and nephrology in 1980.

The family moved back to Massachusetts in 1981, initially to Weymouth, then Hingham 2 years later, and finally to Norwell in 1991, which are 3 adjacent towns in the south suburbs of Boston. Ulhas started a new private practice in Weymouth in 1984, which he continued until his retirement in 2010.

In 1990, he began construction of his dream house, a large contemporary-style residence set on 2 acres of mostly white pine forest in Norwell, MA. The house was designed by his older brother Shivkumar, an architect, and Ulhas acted as general contractor on the whole massive 18-month construction project, despite having no training in that field other than having watched every single episode of “This Old House” on PBS since that series had started in 1979.

After the home was finally completed in 1991, he planted an extensive garden on the property, including many of his favorite trees such as Japanese maples, paperbark maple, Japanese umbrella pine, and the rare Franklinia tree. Many of these plantings had grown into lovely large specimen trees by the time he and his wife needed to sell the house 3 decades later in 2022. They decided to move to the Seattle area, to be closer to their son who had moved to Seattle in 1994 to get his PhD in physics and ended up staying permanently. They bought a lovely but much smaller house on a compact lot in Bonney Lake, WA, which they moved into in September 2022.

Ulhas had a love of music since childhood, and began learning to play the sitar, the iconic stringed instrument of Indian classical music, in his teens. He bought a nice sitar of his own after medical college, which was eventually brought to America several years later. For the next 4 decades, he practiced playing the sitar almost every evening when he was home. For several years he took lessons from a sitar guru in Boston, who was a student of Ravi Shankar, the most famous sitar player and Indian classical musician of the 20th century. After coming to America, he also began to enjoy Western classical music, with Beethoven being his favorite composer.

Ulhas and his wife shared a love of travel, and the family had taken several long road trips throughout the US, Europe, and Scandinavia during the 1970s and 80s. After their son left for college, they travelled even more, and eventually following their retirements in 2010 and 2012, they travelled to a few more new countries almost every year, including several river cruises which they enjoyed greatly. Their final international trip, and one of their favorites, was to Egypt in November 2019. Eventually Ulhas would visit 49 or 50 countries on 5 continents, along with almost all of the US states. Sadly, he missed going to Australia and New Zealand, as their scheduled trip was cancelled when the pandemic started in 2020, and he was no longer fit enough for foreign travel after restrictions returned to normal in 2022.

He was cremated according to his wishes and a celebration of life gathering was held at Sumner Voiles Funeral Chapel, in Sumner, WA on March 7, 2025. Please consider a donation in his memory to his favorite charity, The Carter Center, Atlanta, GA. https://www.cartercenter.org