Parliamentarian passes

Brahama D. Sharma, a retired chemistry professor, one-time Chico City Council candidate, parliamentarian and frequent writer of letters to this paper, the Chico Enterprise-Record and The New York Times, died Dec. 5 at the age of 82. Sharma, who was born in Sampla, Punjab, India, lived his later life in both Chico and Pismo Beach after a career of teaching chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; USC; and Oregon State.

Back in January, the politically active Sharma (pictured) put his name in to serve on the city’s Airport Commission. When he was described by this paper as an “Indian,” Sharma wrote a letter to the editor, speaking in the third person as he often did, to explain: “Brahama D. Sharma is Jewish by birth and a naturalized U.S. citizen and is a member of the Congregation Beth Israel of Chico in very good standing all the time he has been in Chico.”