United States (USA)

Roy, who passed away in Auroville on 6 November 2025 at the age of 76, came to Auroville from the USA in 1971. Roy had learned about Auroville when seeing an image of the Galaxy in a bookshop in New York.

Colleen, partner of Jean from Two Banyans passed away at Marika home in Samasti, on 26 August.

Once upon a time a very long time ago, deep in the woods at the bottom of a mountain — Mother’s Mountain, mata-giri—a six-page newsletter called Collaboration came into being.

Merry, born in Vermont, USA, passed away on 30 March. She was 85. She officially joined Auroville in 1999, but was already involved 10 years earlier.

Donald “Don” Kelman (91) passed away on 30 January 2025 at his home in the Prarthana Community in Auroville. He had valiantly fought dementia for several years with the support of his loved ones and a community of dear friends.

The first thing that strikes you about any exhibition of Priya Sundaravalli’s is the sheer fecundity and variety of her work which makes it impossible to classify her.

John Mandeen left his body on July 7, 2024.

On June 1st Tia Pleiman, an Auroville resident hailing from America, passed away in her home in Surya Nivas in Auroville. She had been working as an art therapist with Maatram.

Lorraine passed away on March 25th, at the age of 76 at Mahalakshmi home where she had been living for the last years. Lorraine hailed from the United States, where she had worked as a nurse.

Audrey Wallace Taylor, one of Auroville’s eminent artists, left her body on August 18th during a family visit in the USA. She had just become 90.

It felt like we were at a ceramic conference. The who’s-who of the pottery scene in Pondicherry and Auroville were present, as were Golden Bridge Pottery students, ex-students, staff and ex-staff.

David Nagel passed away in his Aurodam home on June 23rd. He had been struggling with health issues since a number of years, and had just this year become 80.

On May 2nd, Deborah Lawlor left her body in Los Angeles, California at the age of 84. Deborah and her husband Robert started Forecomers community in 1968, where, on the barren fields and baked, eroded red laterite earth, they had built two huts, one for living quarters and one for a dance and painting studio.

Robert (Bob) Lawlor passed away peacefully on 29 November in the hospital on King Island, Tasmania at the age of 84. After studying Art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., Bob discovered the Sri Aurobindo Ashram during his world travel in the 60s.

On July 3rd 2022, Daniel Brewer, one of Auroville’s early pioneers and co-founder of the Kottakarai community, passed away at the age of 84 in his home in Sayulita, Mexico.

Bryan Walton, one of Auroville’s early pioneers, left his body on March 8 in Wisconsin, USA at the age of 80. Bryan left the USA in the mid-sixties for India in search for a better life, and eventually came to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in June 1971.

Dakshina Vanzetti, a ballet dancer, artist, entrepreneur and co-founder of the Lodi Ashram, California, passed away on February 17, 2022 at the age of 65.

Arya (Charles William) Maloney, USA, passed away on April 17th due to a long illness. He had just become 80 years old. While at Columbia University (NYC) working toward his doctorate, he came across Sri Aurobindo’s work and this would entirely direct his further life.

Former Auroville resident Joan Tomb left her body on June 23rd at the age of 85 in her apartment in Tucson, Arizona, USA, with three of her four children by her side.

Francis was one of the first settlers on the Auroville plateau. Since then, he has been involved in many activities in the community.

Rudy Phillips, who served as President of the Foundation for World Education for ten years, passed away from complications of colon cancer on November 26th.

On December 23rd, Peggy Ann Pfaff passed away in her daughter Lila’s home in Fraternity at the age of 91. Both Lila and her sister Laura, who had come over from the USA, were with her in the moment of transition.

On January 19th Chris Gray left his body in his Yantra after suffering a stroke. He was 75 years old. Chris first arrived in Auroville in the early seventies, travelling overland in his blue Mercedes van.

On April 26th, Anne Nunnally (called ‘Anie’ by The Mother), a dear friend of Auroville, passed away at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Nursing Home at the age of 80.

My mother, Jocelyn of Ravena, was an adventurer. After having me in Berlin, she travelled overland through Europe and Asia, baby in hand, until she reached Pondicherry.

On March 6th, 2016, Eric Hughes passed away after suffering a stroke. He was 84 years old. Eric was well-known as the caretaker of Matagiri (meaning Mother’s Mountain), a 42-acre retreat in Woodstock, New York, which he co-founded with his life-long partner Sam Spanier who he had met over fifty years ago.

Juanita Cole left her body at night on 15 July 2015 in Denver, USA. She was 81 years old. Juanita had been introduced to the concept of Auroville by Younghe and Claude Brun when she was working in the USA embassy in Switzerland.

June Maher, founder of the Auroville Association/Auroville International USA, passed away on Friday April 25th in the Watsonville, CA hospital, the same day that her husband had left four years earlier.

George Katsutoshi Nakashima (May 24, 1905 – June 15, 1990) was a Japanese-American woodworker, architect, and furniture-maker, one of the leading innovators of 20th century furniture design and a father of the American Craft Movement.

Roger Toll left Auroville in 1979 after eight years of living at Matrimandir and Certitude. Today he is a magazine editor and writer living in the United States.

Danaan Parry helped organize the recent American-Soviet-Indian exchange In Auroville. At one time he was a nuclear physicist, working for the U.S.

The Teamwork ’88 (or Peace Trees) programme of exchange between youth from Russia, America and India, which was announced in Auroville Today number two, has happened and was a success.

In mid-December, youth teams from the USA, the USSR and India will arrive in Auroville to participate in a unique experiment – “TEAMWORK ’88”.