October 12, 2018

It is with great sadness that we are informing you that our founding president Dr. Simon Abraham passed away on Friday on Oct 12th at the age of 86 in Mountain Home, Arkansas. He is survived by his wife, Annie, four children (Vinu Simon, Prema, Matthew, and Jacob), and eight grandchildren (Jamuna, Mathew, Abe, Maya, Lily, Simon, Benjamin, and Anna)

Born in the state of Kerala in the south of India, Dr. Abraham grew up in the Nilgiris region of Madras. He graduated from the Christian Medical College with his medical degree in 1958, working as an associate professor of surgery until 1966. He completed training in cardiothoracic surgery in Auckland, New Zealand and earned the title of Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. He moved to Mountain Home in 1971.

Dr. Abraham started his medical practice at the Saltzman-Gunther Clinic, in Mountain Home. The Abraham Medical Center was built in 1975. He had a successful practice with specialization on cardiovascular and family medicine. He retired at age 82 in August 2014 after serving the community for over 43 years. Dr. Abraham donated the building and property on which the Medical Center sat to the Mountain Home Educational Foundation to provide financial assistance to promising high school students. Dr. Abraham also led efforts to support development of the Paraumala Hospital in Kerala

Dr. Abraham was the First Indian American Physician to come to Arkansas and the first foreign medical graduate to receive a medical license in the state. Since the early days he has constantly engaged the foreign physicians coming to the state and advocated for their welfare. He co- founded AAPI Arkansas on April 19, 2008 with Dr. Narender Gorukanti, Dr. Vijay Koli, and Dr. Jayesh Shah. He has been a strong force in our growth in membership from 26 members in 2008 to over 300 members all over the state now. He also has been a strong supporter of charity work done by AAPI Arkansas. He donated $10000 towards our Scholarship initiative at our 10th Anniversary Annual Event this year. We are glad that he was able to attend our Annual Event and we had the opportunity to honor him for his service at the event in the presence of Governor Asa Hutchinson, Congressman French Hill and Lt. Governor Tim Griffin. We will miss him dearly and are deeply grateful for his services to AAPI Arkansas. We would not have been here without his dedication and perseverance. We are sincerely thankful to ‘Father of AAPI Arkansas’ Dr. Simon Abraham

We hereby wish peace and comfort at this difficult time for his family.

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