Prof. Richard Askey learnt from newspaper reports which appeared
soon after the discovery of the Lost Note book of Ramanujan by
Prof. George Andrews, in 1976, that Mrs. Ramanujan was lamenting
the absence of a bust of Ramanujan – promised but not made.
This was sufficient for making Prof. Askey to set the ball rolling
and his efforts culminated in presenting a bust of Ramanujan to
his widow, in 1985, at a function in the University of Madras.
Professor Askey had the support of Professors George Andrews and
S. Chandrasekhar for this purpose, as well as several mathematicians
and scientists.
The
challenge of transforming the passport (two-dimensional) photograph
of Ramanujan into a three dimensional bust was taken up by Paul
Granlund, sculptor-in-residence at Gustavus Adolphus College at
Saint Peter, Minnesota, U.S.A. On Feb 6, 1985, while presenting
a copy of the bronze bust of Srinivasa Ramanujam to the Indian
Academy of Sciences by Prof. S. Chandrasekhar and Mrs. Lalitha
Chandrasekhar (ref. Patrika, Newsletter of the Indian Academy
of Sciences, No. 10, April 1983), a tribute to Ramanujan from
Prof. Richard Askey was read out, detailing the circumstances
which led to the commissioning of the bust.
