Varghese Kuriakose
Premium memorialLovingly known as “Babu”
12 May 1950 — 10 October 2025 · aged 75
IIT Bombay engineer, Tata Steel veteran and founder of a Kochi foundry for 140 families
Kochi, India Born in Kuruppanthara, Kottayam district, Kerala Resting at St. Mary's Church cemetery, KuruppantharaAbout Varghese
Babu Kuriakose could not leave a broken machine alone. At nine he was repairing the neighbourhood's radio sets in Kuruppanthara; at fourteen he rebuilt a rice-mill motor with parts salvaged from a bullock cart; at seventeen he walked into the entrance examination hall with a borrowed pen and left with a place at IIT Bombay.
He graduated in Mechanical Engineering in 1973 and went straight to Tata Steel in Jamshedpur, where he spent thirteen happy years in the foundries and rolling mills and learned, he said, everything that mattered about steel and about people who work beside fire. In 1986 he came home to Kerala with modest savings, a young family and a stubborn idea: that Kerala could make precision castings as good as anything made in Pune. He founded Kuriakose Precision Castings at Kalamassery in 1987, with eleven workers and a second-hand furnace. At its peak the foundry employed one hundred and forty people, and he knew the name of every worker's child. During the 2018 floods he opened the factory floor to neighbours whose homes were underwater and cooked rice for two hundred people on the canteen stove.
On Sundays he sat in the third pew at St. Mary's Church in Kuruppanthara, followed by his wife Annamma's appam and stew. He loved the Nehru Trophy Boat Race, fishing in Vembanad Lake and old Malayalam film songs sung off-key in the car. He died peacefully at home on 10 October 2025, aged seventy-five. He leaves Annamma, his wife of forty-nine years; his son Jacob, who now runs the foundry; his daughter Dr. Rachel in Aberdeen; and four grandchildren, one of whom has already taken apart the family washing machine.
“Steel is patient. So should you be.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Kuruppanthara, Kottayam district, Kerala
- Resting place
- St. Mary's Church cemetery, Kuruppanthara
- Passed away
- 10 October 2025, Kochi
Funeral Service
Monday, 13 October 2025 at 08:00 UTC
Add to calendarMemorial fund
Kuriakose ITI Scholarship Fund
Pay for local ITI students and apprentices to train as machinists and foundry technicians at the Kalamassery works.
$1,600.75 raised of $5,000
32%20 recent contributions
- RI
Rajesh Iyer gave $4.75 · 9mo ago
“In honour of a wonderful woman.”
- RM
Rose Mushi gave $4.75 · 9mo ago
“In honour of a great man.”
- PR
Priscilla Jepchirchir Rono gave $14.25 · 9mo ago
- YA
Yusuf Ali gave $4.75 · 9mo ago
“For the children's school fees.”
- AN
Anonymous gave $9.50 · 9mo ago
Life journey
B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering
IIT Bombay1968 – 1973 · Mumbai
Hostel 4, a shared bicycle and a very bad radio that only he could fix.
Graduate Engineer to Senior Engineer
Tata Steel1973 – 1986 · Jamshedpur
Thirteen years in the foundries and rolling mills.
Married Annamma
1976 · Kottayam
A marriage of forty-nine years.
Founder & Managing Director
Kuriakose Precision Castings1987 – 2020 · Kalamassery, Kochi
Grew a second-hand furnace and eleven workers into a foundry employing 140 families.
Parish Trustee
St. Mary's Church1995 – 2010 · Kuruppanthara
Kept the church accounts to the paisa and repaired its roof, generator and clock.
Best Small-Scale Industrialist Award
Kerala State Small Industries Association2004 · Kochi
For quality, safety and fair treatment of workers.
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Family & connections
Varghese is survived by
- Annamma Kuriakose· Spouse
- Jacob Kuriakose· Son
- Dr. Rachel Thomas· Daughter
- Sosamma Mathew· Sister
- 4 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Varghese.
Knew Varghese? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- AM
Colleague at Tata Steel, Jamshedpur
In 1979 a ladle crane failed on a night shift. Babu stayed forty hours without sleep until it was safe, and nobody was hurt. He never told that story himself; the men on the shop floor did. Jamshedpur had him for thirteen years and Kerala was luckier for the rest.
- TM
Cousin in Dubai
As boys we built a canoe from an old water tank. It sank in four minutes. Babu measured the leak, redrew the design and launched a second one that carried five children across the backwater. He never gave up on a problem, only on bad ideas. Rest well, Babu-chettan.
- RI
IIT Bombay classmate, Hostel 4
We shared a room, one bicycle and a single very bad radio. Babu was the only man who could fix the radio, and the only one who would say, 'Not today, it is sulking.' Fifty-two years on, the radio is still in my attic, still working. So am I, but only just.
- MN
Engineer, daughter of a former furnace worker
My father worked the furnace shift for twenty years. When I got into engineering college, Babu Sir quietly paid my first-year fees and asked only that I write to him each semester. I did. His last reply, two months ago, said: 'Come see the new furnace, madam engineer.'
- FK
Parish priest, St. Mary's, Kuruppanthara
He sat in the third pew and counted the collection with an engineer's precision. He also quietly repaired our generator, our roof and our clock. Asked what he wanted in return, he said, 'A cup of tea after Mass.' The clock stopped on the day he died; we left it that way for a week.
- AK
Foreman at Kuriakose Precision Castings since 1989
Sir hired me at nineteen when I could barely read a drawing. He paid for my night classes and sat with me over blueprints on Sundays. Thirty-six years later I am the one teaching the new boys. He said, 'A craft is something you hand on.' I will keep handing it on.
