[Davis Democrats] Citizen Arun Sen

[G Richard Yamagata]

To the politically active people of Davis,

It is my sad task to inform you of the passing of Past Davis Democratic 
Club President Arun Sen.  He died on this last Wednesday evening, on May 
27.  He was surrounded by his immediate family at his home in Davis.  No 
one can ask for more than this at the end. He had been battling kidney 
disease for the last few months.  I will try to let the club know as 
soon as I hear, if there will be a memorial service.

I hope that people will not mind my writing of what I knew of Arun in 
terms of his time with the Davis Democratic Club.  As recording 
secretary, I get to know the DDC Presidents, because I have to work 
closely with them each and every month for the monthly board meetings.  
Arun first came on to the Davis Democratic Club Board during the Fall of 
2004.  The DDC board meetings can be very disorderly, because of the 
myriad of conflicting opinions within the club and the board.   This was 
when we did not have Stephen Souza as our DDC President.  Arun was asked 
to be the parliamentarian to bring order to the meetings. He was well 
respected as a member of the local Davis Town and Gown Toastmasters and 
was part of the national US governing body of the Toastmasters 
International.  He ultimately was elected to office of National Vice 
President of that organization.  He knew Roberts Rules of Order, 
backwards and forwards.  He brought order to the DDC meetings and they 
started to end under 2 hours, rather than over 3 hours.  One board 
meeting had lasted 4 hours before Arun became parliamentarian.  After 
that meeting, I wanted to resign as recording secretary.

As past DDC President Jerry Kaneko observed, being President of the DDC 
is like herding cats.  Because of what Arun had done for the DDC Board, 
Arun was asked to run for DDC President in 2006. He was elected on March 
18, 2006.  After that successful first 2 year term, he was asked to run 
for 3 more terms, serving a total of 8 years as DDC President.  
Coincidentally, Arun's last term ended on a March 18 in the year 2014, 
when Stephen Souza returned as DDC President after stepping down from 
the office 10.5 years before.

That seems to be the pattern with Yolo County Democrats.  They keep 
re-electing people to lead the party that are able to effectively bring 
together coalitions into a smoothly operating organization, even when 
they want to move on or have other responsibilities.  As I stated 
before, Arun was a national and local leader in Toastmasters, a regional 
and local participant in the International Order Odd Fellows, as well as 
serving on the Board of Directors of USE Credit Union, and the Board  of 
the Davis ProBizExchange.  He also helped organize annual East Indian 
cultural events and volunteered and sponsored activities at the 
International House in Davis, including personally financing an annual 
award for the volunteer of the year with that organization.  Arun was 
organizing or being part of all of these activities and more that I do 
not know or have forgotten and was at the same time, a very effective 
President and representative of the DDC at many, many regional political 
events.  These past 6 years, he has served as past president on the 
executive board of the Davis Democratic Club and at some point served 
with the finance committee of the Yolo County Democratic Party.  Again, 
this is in addition to everything else and weekly visits to see and be 
with his two grand children in the bay area, who he doted upon and his 
two daughters, whom he dearly loved.

In June 2011, Arun went in for surgery for a bowel obstruction. This was 
his third or fourth major surgery where he was given a blood 
transfusion.  What sometimes happens with a person that receives blood 
multiple times, they start reacting with minor blood compatibility 
markers other than the three major ones they match for blood 
transfusions.  Arun had a major blood transfusion reaction and almost 
died.  He came out from the other side as what the Sutter Hospital staff 
declared, "the miracle man" that survived, when 90 percent of the people 
die from this type of blood transfusion reaction.  During the four 
months that Arun went through rehab and recovery, his spirits were 
buoyed by many, many visitors and cards that he received.  During that 
time, I visited Arun at least once a week with other friends to have 
dinner with him and to bring him more get well cards and reading 
material. He returned to the DDC Board on October 4, 2011 and served 
another 5 months and then another 2 year term as DDC President.  This 
was all 9 years ago.

I was hoping that once again, this would be the result of Arun's recent 
surgery, but that was not to be.

I think that these words apply to Arun:  "... and the time of my 
departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the 
race, I have kept the faith"

-- 
G Richard Yamagata  PhD
CEO/President VME Inc.     http://www.vme.net/
http://vme.net/bcards/bio.html
Phone: 530-VIV-VMEI or 530-848-8634 and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

G Richard Yamagata is a member of the Davis Community Network Advisory Board, Recording Secretary & communications Director on the Board of the
Davis Democratic Club, President of the board of Virtual Market Enterprises, Inc, Secretary-Treasurer of the Board of Directors - Davis Progressive
Business Exchange and communications liaison and board member for the Business Link of Woodland and Davis.

For public service to the Progressive Business Exchange of Davis,
Recipient of the 2015 Service Award.

For public service to the citizens of Yolo County,
Recipient of the 2013 Yolo County Concilio Board of Directors Award

For public service to the Democratic Party of Yolo County,
Recipient of the 2007 Weir-Willamson Award

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The thoughts expressed are my own and do not reflect the policies or
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