Home News and Events People

 

Obituary: Miss Arvinda Pandya Arvinda Pandya, Manager of the Computer Centre’s Operations Section, has died after a period of illness and hospitalisation. Arvinda was born on May 31, 1954.  Following schooling at Rushey Mead, Beauchamp and Ellis Secondary Schools, she spent six years working in clerical posts, including that of Secretary to the Manager of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International in London.  She was appointed to the University as Trainee Computer Operator in the Computer Laboratory from September, 1976, promoted to Computer Operator in October 1977 and then to Senior Computer Operator in February 1985, and, in January 1990, appointed Chief Operator.  In April 1992, following the restructuring of the Computer Centre, she was appointed head of the Operations Section - a post she held until her death.  The role and responsibility of the team changed enormously during her time with the University, particularly during the period of Arvinda's leadership. The central systems changed from Cyber to VAX and then to Silicon Graphics.  More significant was the growth in PC services that took place during the 90s, based initially on NetWare and more recently on Windows 2000.  All this was against the background of a massive change in user population.  Initially providing a very specialised service for a small number of research users, the services are now used throughout the University and the expectation of quality and availability has increased accordingly. Whilst the core 'operations role' has simplified over the years, there has been a constant growth in the demand for user-based services. Arvinda was always eager to develop her section's support for such services and has contributed enormously to the development of Help Desk, Software Distribution and Fault Reporting services. Her development and training of the operations team presented challenges due to the constantly changing environment, a situation made even more difficult at times due to difficulties of staff retention. She was a very determined individual with a strong commitment to the support and development of the operations service, despite failing health in recent years. Outside work, her interests included Hinduism, cooking, reading, cinema and Indian dancing, and the support of her family, in particular her nephew and three nieces. In 1994 she was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy, and, in June 2002, with cancer of the oesophagus. She died on August 25, 2002. John Wilson September 2002   Death notice: Miss Arvinda Pandya Back to People Back to index

Last updated: 26 September 2002 17:00
Created by: Rachel Tunstall
Maintained by: Barbara Whiteman
This document has been approved by the head of department or section.
If you are an authorised user you may edit this document through your Web browser.