Boston, July 13
Amar G Bose, the Indian-American visionary entrepreneur and acoustics pioneer, famous for making high-quality Bose audio systems and speakers for home users, auditoriums and automobiles, has died. He was 83.

Bose’s death was announced yesterday by his company Bose Corp’s president, Bob Maresca, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Bose had been on the faculty for more than 40 years.

Bose died yesterday at his home in Wayland, Massachusetts. His death was confirmed by his son, Dr Vanu G Bose. “Dr Bose founded Bose Corporation almost 50 years ago with a set of guiding principles centred on research and innovation,” Maresca was quoted by New York Times as saying in a statement.

“That focus has never changed.” Bose was born on November 2, 1929, in Philadelphia. His father, Noni Gopal Bose, was a Bengali freedom fighter who was studying physics at the Calcutta University when he was arrested and imprisoned for his opposition to British rule. — PTI

The Bengali surname Bose packs rich history. Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose, scientist extraordinaire. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, freedom fighter. Prof Satyendra Nath Bose, after whom is named the boson in particle physics.

And yet, elsewhere in the world, when anyone carrying that surname is asked the question: “Ah, Mr Bose. Any relation…?” he knows they’re talking about just one Bose, the one who was alive until Friday.

Amar Gopal Bose was a pioneer in modern acoustics. He was founder and chairman of the company whose products carry the Bose name into millions of homes and offices across the world. He was that rare combination of scientist, engineer, academic, and star entrepreneur (he made it to the Forbes 2007 list of the world’s 400 richest people). He’s in the US National Inventors Hall of Fame, alongside Thomas Edison, Graham Bell and the Wright Brothers.

His father Noni Gopal Bose fled India in the 1920s, after being jailed by the British colonial police while studying physics at Calcutta University. Amar Bose was raised in Pennsylvania, where he went to school - while repairing radio sets for pocket money, and later, making and selling small electrical toys to support his family. He graduated in electrical engineering from MIT’s class of 1951.

Bose’s first job was in the research labs of Philips, in the Netherlands, followed by a year in New Delhi’s National Physical Laboratory as a Fulbright research student. He went back to the MIT for his PhD in electrical engineering. MIT’s School of Engineering instituted the Bose Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1990. — IANS