Dr. Sushil K. Sharma

There will be a live-stream of the service starting at 5:30 PM Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 https://livestream.com/aritonvideolive/sharma

Dr. Sushil K. Sharma, age 65, of West Orange, NJ passed on Mach 20, 2022 in Shanghai, China where he was living and working for past three years.

Son of Gokul Chand and Santosh Sharma, he was born and raised in Delhi, India, where he attended school and spent his first year after graduation working at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Delhi. It was always Sushil’s dream to move abroad, so while working at NPL, he decided to go to the US to further his studies. After being rejected six times in a row from the US Consulate in Delhi, Sushil decided that he would travel within India instead, and applied for a job in Trivandrum in South India. He quickly secured a job and on his first trip back to Delhi, he decided to make a stop in Madras (now known as Chennai) and try his luck at the US Embassy located there. Seventh time was the charm and he was granted a student visa to US.

He only had one week to come home and leave for US as the next session of school was about to begin. He left his motherland on August 15, 1980 for the US. He spent one year at University of New Mexico Albuquerque before deciding to transfer to R.I.T (Rochester Institute of Technology) to be closer to his uncle and his family.  Sushil was a dedicated student, and received his Master’s Degree from R.I.T. and went on to earn his Doctorate Degree and Post Doctorate Degree from his beloved University of Notre Dame. After spending seven years in South Bend and becoming a die-hard Fighting Irish fan (a fandom he passed on to his children), Dr. Sharma and his family moved to New Jersey, where he worked in oncology research for Novartis. He spent the last 32 years working with Novartis in their Florham Park, East Hanover, and Shanghai, China locations, working tirelessly to bring hope to those fighting cancer and their families.

Sushil married his wife, Pavan Sharma (née Avasthi) on June 27, 1982 in Haridwar, India in her backyard. Soon after the wedding, Sushil returned back to US, promising Pavan that he would show her the world. He made good on that promise and together they traveled to innumerable countries through their thirty-nine years of a loving and devoted marriage. Their marriage was blessed with two children, Sidharth born in 1985, and Sonali, born in 1990, as well as two grandchildren Kai and Kavi (2019 and 2021).

Dr. Sharma will be remembered as a gregarious, caring, loving, and adventurous man who loved his family above all else. He was a fun-loving optimist, who often joked he couldn’t possibly be aging because he still felt like a kid at heart. He loved others unconditionally and felt strongly that true love means expecting nothing in return. He dedicated his life to caring and providing for his family, often thinking two steps ahead when it came to their needs, to ensure that he solved any problem that may come their way. Nothing gave him more joy in life than seeing his family happy and thriving.

His passion for the game of Cricket was second to none. Because many games were played in different time zones, he would stay up at all hours of the night to watch the matches. He traveled to different countries to watch the games firsthand and even had photos of himself waving self-made signs appear in the Trinidad Express and the Indian Express Newspapers.

He was the loving husband of almost forty years to Pavan Sharma; devoted father of Sidharth Sharma of West Orange, and Sonali and her husband Ted Dwyer of Roseland; cherished Nanu of Kai and Kavi Dwyer; beloved brother of Sanjeev Sharma and his wife Sujeeta, and Nishi Sharma and her husband Rakesh, all of Delhi. He will be dearly missed by many loving nieces, nephews, and cousins.  He will also be dearly missed by his “first grandchild” Rudy – his daughter’s dog, who he loved to spoil with treats and walks around the park.