A tribute to Dr Victor Augustus Gunasekara – By Hermin Goonetilleke
A man with many skills – academic, scholar, linguist, author and significant achievements to his name died on 19 January aged 86 years.
Dr Victor Gunasekara was a founder member of the Sri Lanka Society of Queensland and the editor of its newsletter for several years. He and his wife Chalani have continued as members of the Society and have participated actively in its events since then. Victor was recognised for his services to the Society by the awarding of the inaugural cup for services to the Society.
He was also a founder member and secretary of the Buddhist Society of Queensland, which he has been involved with for over 40 years.
Victor saw himself as a humanist and was a member of the Queensland Humanist Society and Humanists Victoria. He made regular contributions to their newsletters, especially on the relationship between Humanism and Buddhism. He also served on the executive committee of the Council of Australian Humanist Societies in 2002.
Victor spoke several languages, Sinhalese, English, French and German. He was also well versed in Pali and Sanskrit.
Victor was an academic and lectured in Economics at Colombo and Peradeniya Universities in Sri Lanka. He received a scholarship that allowed him to complete a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics and the Sorbonne in Paris in the early 1960s.
Upon returning to Sri Lanka he married Chalani in 1965. They were blessed with a daughter Imani and a son Pradeep.
Victor after completing his sabbatical as a lecturer at the University of Ille Ife in Nigeria accepted a position as a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Queensland. He was one of the first Sri Lankan Migrants of Sinhalese heritage to arrive in Australia, just before the abolition of the White Australia Policy. He lectured at the Department of Economics at the University of Queensland until he retired at aged 67, 20 years ago.
Throughout his life Victor generously helped anybody who asked for support – friends, family, students and new arrivals to Australia. Throughout his academic career, he educated thousands of students.
Victor had a very good knowledge and understanding of Buddhism. He authored many books and articles, with a good example being the book Basic Buddhism – A Modern Introduction to the Buddha’s Teaching, now in its 3rd Edition. In addition, he was a great teacher and freely shared his knowledge with anyone who was interested. His talent for linguistics led him to learn the Pali language to a very high degree of proficiency. One of his final projects was to paraphrase and translate the Pali Cannon to delete repetition in order to make it easier to read for lay people. He combined this with his passion for programming and technology and published this work on his website, VGweb.org
Victor passed away peacefully in his sleep after a short stay in hospital, without pain or suffering.
May he attain Nibbana.
Hermin Goonetilleke
