Narendra Bhatia, Engineer and Long-Time Beaver Island Summer Resident, Dies at 89

Narendra (Naren) Bhatia began his time on Beaver Island more than 25 years ago when he purchased property on Greene’s Bay, where he and his family spent many summers.

Narendra Kumar Bhatia was born in Sialkot, India, on or around January 14, 1936. He was the second of seven siblings. In 1947, during the upheaval of Partition, he and his family were displaced, and they resettled on the Indian side of Punjab.

Through a blend of hard work, vision, academic excellence, and no small measure of pluck, Naren rose above the challenges of his time. Along with his closest friend and brother, Virendra, he was among the few to earn a full scholarship to college. He earned degrees in physics, math, and English literature before adding a degree in civil engineering in Mumbai and, at just 20 years old, began his career with the Punjab Irrigation Department, overseeing canals built to irrigate rural lands.

In 1962, he departed for the US with little more than a suitcase, a blanket and a few dollars in his pocket. After stops in Hong Kong and San Francisco, he made his way to the University of Minnesota where he managed the biting cold of Minneapolis, washed dishes and taught Punjabi to Peace Corps volunteers to make ends meet, and graduated within 12 months with a master’s in civil/structural engineering.

Naren was exceedingly proud to be an engineer, which he considered a noble profession. After graduate school he moved to California and was involved in projects as varied as paper mills in rural Oregon to the design of a satellite tracking installation in Australia used to support the Apollo missions.

He spent most of his career at Bechtel and CMS Energy, managing the design and construction of power plants around the world. At Bechtel, he worked on many projects including the Turkey Point Nuclear Plant in Homestead, Florida where, much to his surprise, he was named Project Engineer. His career was filled with adventure: he and his family lived in Spain for five years, and later while living in Ann Arbor he managed projects spread across sixteen countries and six continents. He enjoyed tabulating his total flight miles, delighting in how many times he had, in effect, circled the globe.

He was curious about new cultures and never hesitated to strike up a conversation with anyone willing to chat. He was particularly proud to have learned Spanish and would test it out on unsuspecting targets, whenever he could.

He read Foreign Affairs and his daily newspapers religiously, always engaged in history and geopolitics. He challenged those around him to stay informed, to think critically, and to ask questions. He often reminded his children of how difficult life was for so many. He volunteered for political campaigns and as a retiree knocked on doors in Iowa during a presidential campaign – easily and proudly the oldest volunteer in the buses that drove the twenty-something year old campaign volunteers from Michigan to Iowa. Late in life he learned to play the piano and despite middling talent and a fading memory, he kept at it and loved the opportunity to be musical.

One of his favorite party tricks was solving highly complex math problems in his head, a skill he maintained to the very end. He enjoyed, at age 89, being the oldest member of his gym. Naren could be competitive but one forgave it as a prerequisite to navigate the difficult path he had taken.

He was above all a sincerely kind and gentle man. He was a dedicated father - coaching soccer despite not knowing the rules, and coaching field hockey where he did. His children knew he was in their corner - supportive, often worried and inquiring about updates and developments, and always proud and pleased to see them happy. Naren loved the life he built for his family over 50 years in Ann Arbor and on Beaver Island, MI.

And he was a husband who loved his wife dearly. It was during his time in Los Angeles that he met Nishta Gill. As he retold the story countless times, it was love at first sight. At a reception for the Indian Consul General in November 1965, quick on his feet and with his memorable grin, he outmaneuvered a crowd of suitors to claim the seat next to her. Six months later, they were married. He very regularly would proclaim that the greatest fortune in his life was to marry Nishta, and that it changed his life profoundly in ways he could never have achieved on his own. They were married for 59 years, and there was unlikely a day that he didn’t feel like he had won the lottery.

Naren died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on May 16, 2025, at the age of 89. Ever the numbers man, he had long been statistically convinced he would reach 90-so he was close. He leaves behind two sisters Kanta and Shashi, his wife Nishta, his daughter Meera, his son Ranjeet, his daughter-in-law Elisabeth, his grandchildren, Finn and Nora, and many nieces and nephews.