City Council Meeting March 29, 2017
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Philip T. Kaiayil, one of the pioneers of the Indian American community died Monday, March 13, 2017 at the age of 86 years old. He was surrounded by his loving wife of 67 years, Annamma, his two sons Tom and Sales, son-in-law to his late daughter Lisa, Tom, daughter Ann along with their spouses and his grandchildren; and
WHEREAS, Philip's journey of achieving the American dream started when he left the shores of Kerala, India by ship in January 1956. After weeks of delays due to mishaps and multiple port stops, he finally arrived to Chicago in March of 1956. By traveling to America, it meant leaving behind two young sons and his young wife pregnant with their third child-a daughter. But Philip believed in Mahatma Gandhi's words that "the future depends of what we do in the present". In order to build a better future, he had to make the sacrifice; and
WHEREAS, After completing his graduate degree in Sociology, Philip's passion to help people allowed him to pursue a career in social work that began with Catholic Charities. Over the years, his hard work and dedication for serving the less fortunate caught the attention of many including the City of Chicago's Department of Human Services. Philip proudly served the residents of Chicago as the Assistant Director of Emergency Services until his retirement in 1992; and
WHEREAS, Though he came to the United States to pursue graduate work at Loyola University, Philip soon became involved in leadership activities at the Crossroads International Center organizing activities for international students. He also spent many volunteer hours building institutions in the India American community. In the early 1970's, Philip was one of the founders of Asian Forum, a pan-Asian organization that looked at strengthening the Asian American coalition of Chicago. Philip's work with Asian Forum's vision led to the birth of many of today's Asian American and South Asian American civic organizations. He was one of the founders of the Indo-American Democratic Organization in 1981, which is one of the oldest political organizations in Chicago. His biggest contribution to Asian Americans in Chicago was the vision and commitment to bring together the Asian American community in the political arena; and
WHEREAS, Philip instilled the principle of service to all four of his children. Whether it was civic engagement, feeding the less fortunate, providing a source of support, Tom, Sales, Lisa and Ann carry on their father's vision. His two son's Tom and Sales continue to take on leadership roles in local and national politics as well as community based organizations. His late daughter Lisa helped introduced Indian culture to the masses in the 1970s through the arts. His youngest daughter, Dr. Ann Kaiayil, who was most recently concluded her appointment as the Regional Administrator of the Great Lakes Region for the General Services Administration under President Barack Obama is also
the co-founder of the South Asian American Policy & Research Institute; a think tank focused on South Asian civic engagement; and
WHEREAS, In 2002 Philip was quoted as saying "every community needs institutions to help them become anchored and integrated into American society. It was with the hope that these institutions would help Asian Americans, Indian Americans, or Malayalees that I spent over 52 years in this country in building and creating such institutions through civic activities. Service to community is important and I hope this is continued by the next generation. This sentiment is embodied in Rabindranath Tagore's quote 'I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and members of the Chicago City Council, assembled this twenty-ninth day of March, 2017, do hereby commemorate Philip T. Kaiayil for his outstanding life and record of service and do hereby express our condolences to his family; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Philip T. Kaiayil.
