Willow Street, PA, February 1, 2024 –Fulton Books author Suren Rao Ph.D, who currently resides with his wife of thirty-nine years outside Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and enjoys spending time with his three grown-up daughters and the two grandchildren, has completed his most recent book, “Seventy-Nine Times Across the Atlantic: An Immigrant’s Story”: a powerful and compelling memoir that documents how the author immigrated to the United States and achieved the American dream through raising a family and earning professional and financial success.

Born and raised in India, author Suren Rao Ph.D received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1970, after which he worked as a research engineer at a machine tool research institute, all in the city of Bangalore. In 1975, he traveled to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where he received his Master of Engineering degree in 1977. After a brief stint at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, he obtained his doctorate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980. He then spent over a decade in industrial research and design, first as a research scientist at Battelle’s Columbus Laboratories in Columbus, Ohio, and then at the National Broach and Machine company in Mt. Clemens, Michigan, as its vice president in engineering. After transitioning into academic research and teaching, Dr. Rao retired in 2014 after twenty-one years in that position, having authored over sixty publications in various technical journals and magazines, and being an inventor on six US patents.

“Seventy-Nine Times Across the Atlantic: An Immigrant’s Story” chronicles the author’s life, beginning with his leaving India for Canada in the pursuit of higher education and subsequent employment in the various sectors of American enterprise. He met his wife, raised three daughters, and lived the American dream to its fullest as the book describes, as well as the various technical challenges that he encountered and met in his professional life that lasted over three decades in the US. His financial success enabled him to travel extensively to his native India and keep in touch with the family he left behind and see various countries in Europe. Hence, the many crossing of the Atlantic Ocean as the title of the book implies. It also enabled him to satisfy his love for the mountains, both within the American continent and the mighty Himalayas in the countries of Nepal and Tibet. Those adventures are also chronicled in the book.

“Yes, I have crossed the Atlantic Ocean by air seventy-nine times and counting,” writes Dr. Rao. “Having relocated to North America in 1975, having been successful beyond my dreams, and having family in India means many trip across the ocean and the continents of Europe and Asia. Combine those trips with business travel and one realizes that an absurd number of crossings have been accomplished. I am sure I am not alone as many successful individuals from my native country call the United States home. Now in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, that freedom to travel and keep in physical touch with one’s near and dear cannot be taken for granted. Unsure as to when that freedom will be restored, I cherish the memories of those trips and hope for more.

“There are several reasons for writing this memoir. One is to record my life for posterity. Maybe my children and my grandchildren will want to know about my life. The other is much more personal. I came from a distant land to these United States of America, brown-skinned and all, worked hard, took a few risks, for which this blessed land rewarded me to a measure that exceeded my expectations immensely. Yet at this writing accusations that we are a wretched nation with ‘systemic and institutional racism’ is bandied about by the media and over half of this nation’s citizens and actions to promote equity, not equality, is the cry of the day. That brings tears to my eyes, and I sincerely hope my life does not extend to where I see this nation being transformed.”