Don Gunasena Athukorala

Don Gunasena Athukorala passed away peacefully in Sydney on February 22, 2024 three months short of his century. His funeral is due to take place in Sydney at 4.30 p.m. on March 5.

A onetime Chairman of the State Engineering Corporation following the legendary A.N.S. Kulasinghe, Athukorale joined the SEC at its founding in 1962 and became deputy to Kulasinghe. The SEC soon became the choice for employment of young engineers who saw the pioneering work done there under the guidance of Kulasinghe and Athukorala too chose to join that institution.

After his retirement from the SEC he becme Director of the Headworks Division of the Mahaweli Authority and was a founding director.

Apart from his engineering skill, he after retirement wrote a short treatise on the Buddha’s principle of Relativity which is based on the doctrine of Paticca Samuppada or dependent arising. This book is regarded as an attempt to throw light on the combination of thought, memory, emotion, intellect and consciousness that is referred to as the mind. He was 86-years od when he authored this book.

Athukorale earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of London in 1950. He acquired his professional qualifications and membership from the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE) of UK in 1955 after finishing his practical training at Wilment Brothers & Scott Wilson Kirkpartrick and Partners.

In the 1960s the government began a programme of rapid industrialization and the SEC undertook huge industrial complexes such as factories for steel, tyres and cement. It was responsibe for constructing the Colombo Planetarium and also constructed the hemispherical shell for the famous chaitiya at Kalutara.

After a change of government, he left the country for the UK and worked for Sir William Harrow & Partners which included a short stint as a field civil engineer with Esso Petroleum in Libya. In 1972 on his return to Sri Lanka he worked for the Mahaweli Development Board and in 1977 he rejoined the State Engineering Corporation working on the Accerated Mahaweli Diversion Scheme and public housing programmes under the Gam Udawa initiative.

Athukorale will be remembered by civil engineers as competent and innovative engineer who introduced modern construction techniques to the country. He undertook all these engineering projects with flair and took an abiding interest in developing the professional capabilities of young engineers who worked alongside him.

Prof. Lakshman Jayatileke who was Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and later Vice Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya had this to say about Don Gunasena Athukorala: “Above all he will be remembered for his pristine character wuth uncompromising integrity and good intent. His technical competence combined with integrity made him exemplary for future generatins of engineers.”

I first got to know him many years back. That was the era when proposed marriages were almost the order of the day. I distinctly recall the day he walked into my mother’s home at 200, Havelock Road to meet my sister Iranganie who very shyly came to the verandah. The rest is history.

They had three children- Aravinda, 65, from UK who has earned a name for himself as the second largest supplier of software for banks around the world and set up his own institution Korde Associates Ltd (KAL); Ruvini, 63, an accountant who was the one who spent most of her time looking after her father when he was alone and the youngest Prasanna, 61, an investment banker who with Ruvini shared the responsibility of looking after and caring for their father so devotedly.

May he attain the supreme bliss of Nirvana.
-Nihal Seneviratne­