Professor Sadanand Verma, Ph.D., 58 years resident of Las Vegas, who retired from UNLV in 2022 at the age of 92, has died last week at 95. Two months ago, I went to his home and spent two hours with him, his wife, and son. I gave him a folder of my recent reflections to browse over. He was glad about my visit. However, I was rather shocked to notice a decline in his health in about three years. I realized that the human body is meant to die in harness/die in boots, as the saying goes. 

In 1967, when Verma moved to Las Vegas to join UNLV, there were hardly anyone from India. Sadanand Verma was a pioneer Indian in making Las Vegas his home for 58 years ago. He belonged to Muzaffarpur, Bihar. After coming to the US in 1955, he finished an PhD in Mathematics from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, in 1958. He is survived by his wife of nearly 60 years, two sons, and a daughter.  

My memorial thoughts, in a discrete mode, are listed below:

1. Verma joined UNLV in 1967 – just after ten years of its founding in 1957. Once I did ask him as to what brought him from the University of Windsor (Canada) to UNLV. Most likely, it was the rank and/or tenure that UNLV offered him. He was the first math PhD holder amongst half a dozen non-PhD faculty then. 

2. Verma’s 55 years is not a UNLV record for the longest serving faculty. This record belongs to Professor Felicia Campbell (RIP), who was in the English Department for 58 years (1962-2020), but it was not until 1973 when she earned her PhD. Unknowingly, Verma may have set a national record-55 years as the longest span of a full professor of mathematics in one academic department in a university!

3. Verma ‘fathered’ the Department of Computer Science. In the 1970s, he hired math faculty with computer science backgrounds (In 1974, I was one of them) – a stroke of his administrative genius. Computer Science courses were offered along with Math courses for at least ten years before a home in the College of Engineering was created for them. Chairing a large department like mathematics for 22 years (1968- 1990) speaks volumes for Verma’s administrative abilities, and for his communication skills in dealing with various units across campus. 

4. The MS (Math) program was launched in 1969, as Verma encouraged faculty to offer graduate courses soon after his joining the Department. The office of the Environmental Protection Agency (West) was on the UNLV campus then. Its director approached Verma for the offering of graduate courses in statistics for the EPA researchers. Verma hired Aaron Goldman as a professor (full) to develop statistics as a new concentration in the MS program. The current Math PhD program was initiated in 2002 by the then Chair, Diedonne Phanord. However, Verma had proposed it first in 1986 – he was a visionary in every aspect of the development of mathematics.

5. Verma watched the minutest moves on the campus. In the 1980s, he proposed a change in the Department’s name – from the Department of Mathematics to the Department of Mathematical Sciences. The reason was ‘Mathematics’ was removed from the name, College of Science, Mathematics and Engineering. Eventually, Engineering had their own Division/College. Verma was UNLV’s walking historian too.

6. In conclusion, when Verma came in 1967, UNLV was mocked as a Tumbleweed Tech school, and ranked at the bottom in the Carnegie Ranking System. He retired in 2022, when it had jumped in rank to the R1 research category. Verma is a brick, mortar, and a pillar of UNLV. The investment of 55 years of life in UNLV is like someone having bought the shares in Microsoft in 1986.

Memorial and funeral services will be held on Friday, June 13th at the La Paloma Funeral Home, 5450 Stephanie Street, Henderson

Satish C. Bhatnagar, Ph.D. May 21, 2025

Professor, Department of Mathematical Sciences,  University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154 Phone: 702-895-0383 Email: bhatnaga@unlv.nevada.edu Adjunct Professor, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda (2019 –  ) UNLV Faculty Senate (2018 – 2021)