Volunteer Donnie Pitonyak adjusts the Commerce Public Library’s “fund-raising train” to reflect the $120,000 donation made by the family of Dr. and Mrs. Narasimhulu Neelagaru. The library is now within $75,000 of meeting its goal.
Gratitude For Library Led Dr. Neel, Family To Donate $150,000
Because Dr. Narasimhulu Neelagaru grew up poor, the Commerce Public Library’s Building Fund is $150,000 richer.
Known locally as “Dr. Neel,” the Commerce cardiologist, who is so highly regarded in his field that Georgia Baptist Hospital used to fly him in and out of that facility by helicopter, recently announced the largest donation of the library’s fund drive. The money puts the facility within $75,000 of reaching its goal to leverage state funding for a $2 million expansion.
The Commerce City Council officially accepted the donation Monday night.
“That’s quite a gift from Dr. Neel. We are quite indebted to him,” commented Mayor Charles L. “Buzzie” Hardy Jr. Monday night after the city council voted unanimously to accept the money.
That Dr. Neel is highly regarded professionally is due in equal parts to his zeal for learning and the availability of books in the public library in his hometown, Bellary, India.
Poor in a poor country, the library was his ticket out of poverty.
“My father always said the way to get out of this situation is to have education, so education is extremely important to me,” Dr. Neel explained.
And the library was a crucial part of that education.
“I used to spend days, sometimes months, like eight hours a day, every day, six to seven days a week going to the library during the holidays, reading everything I could,” he recalled. “I owe a lot to the library. Oftentimes, the librarian used to see me as the first one in the morning and the last one to leave.”
Dr. Neel says he can still picture the librarian, “the man walking, the way he dressed. I have this picture in my mind, so clearly,” he said.
Anyone trying to find a connection between reading and education need look no further than Dr. Neel. At graduation from high school, he was ranked 10th in his state, and thus given a scholarship to the university of choice in his state. He went to the medical school in his hometown right out of high school, saving the cost of room and board by living at home.
In medical school, he had the option to take an exam to come to the United States, and in 1973 he came to New York City where he did his internal medicine residency at New York Medical College, followed by a cardiology fellowship in Bridgeport, CT, after which he practiced in Wisconsin.
It didn’t take long before he looked south.
“I used to come to Atlanta for meetings. I liked the weather, and Wisconsin is cold and more cold,” he said. “Also, I wanted to bring my children to a small town and wanted to live in a small town.”
The family visited towns within an hour of Atlanta.
“Commerce gave me a chance that I could not refuse,” Dr. Neel said. “It’s the best town I ever lived in.”
He’s been here 20 years.
Dr. Neel and his wife, Sumithra, have two children, son Suresh, who followed his father into cardiology, and daughter Suleka, who is in her final year of a residency in preventative medicine. Both were also accepted for medical school right out of high school, with Suresh going to the University of Missouri at Kansas City and Suleka being accepted at Brown University.
While most of his current reading is related to medical journals, textbooks and business books, Dr. Neel still finds time to read for pleasure. His preference runs to historical fiction.
Dr. Neel is on staff at BJC Medical Center and Northeast Georgia Medical Center. He was on staff at Emory-Crawford Long Hospital until the traffic made getting there too difficult, and for years he was on staff with Georgia Baptist Hospital, which used to provide a helicopter for his commute.
He gets back to his home in India every two or three years, and occasionally drops in on his old public library. It reminds him of the role libraries played in his life.
“I am very privileged to do it,” he says of the gift to the Commerce Public Library, for which the children’s library will be renamed “The Neelagaru Family Children’s Library.” “Really privileged.”
Dr. Neel supports higher education through scholarships offered through Commerce Cardiology to local high school seniors planning careers in medicine, and to nursing students.
