ORUUC member Shigeko Uppuluri died peacefully June 8, 2023. She had been in the care of hospice and was upheld by the thoughts and prayers of her many friends and family as she approached the threshold and quietly passed through.

Shigeko was born on April 9th, 1931 in Kyoto, Japan. She lived in Shanghai, China during WWII, and returned to Kyoto in 1954 to complete high school and college. She met her husband Ram Uppuluri when she was doing graduate work at Indiana University in the late 1950s.

Shigeko and her husband moved to Oak Ridge in 1963 and raised their son, Ram, here. She was a tremendous asset to the community, and to our Church. She was an advocate for peace and was instrumental in bringing the International Friendship Bell to Oak Ridge in 1993 as part of the 50th anniversary of the founding of Oak Ridge. She helped establish Oak Ridge’s Sister City cultural exchange program with Naka, Japan.

On Thursday, June 15th at 7 p.m., the community was invited to gather at the International Friendship Bell pavilion in Bissell Park for a brief comfort circle honoring Shigeko.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, Aug. 5 at 2 p.m. at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. https://www.knoxnews.com/obituaries/kns05975

To learn more about Shigeko in her own words, visit the American Heritage Foundation website for “Voices of the Manhattan Project,” a 50-minute video interview with Shigeko made on April 26, 2018. https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/voices/oral-histories/shigeko-uppuluris-interview/.