My father, Kopalapillai Mahadeva, who has died aged 89, was a scholar of production engineering and management whose self-discipline and determination into his 80s was inspiring.
Kopalapillai, known as Kopan to his friends, was born in Madduvil South, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), to Kanthar Kopalapillai, an industrialist, and Ramanathar (nee Ponnammah). His mother died of complications in childbirth when Kopan was four, and his father of tuberculosis six years later, so Kopan and his two brothers were brought up by an aunt and uncle. At Jaffna central college, he met Seethadevi Muthucumarasamy, whom he married in 1960. He read engineering at the University of Ceylon, after which he served as an engineer in the public works department and the army (1955-61).
