Dr. Mahendra R. Doshi

Dr. Mahendra R. Doshi, age 84, of Appleton, Wisconsin, passed away peacefully at his home on Friday, April 24, 2026. He was a paper recycling pioneer, lifelong teacher, and devoted husband, father, and grandfather.

Mahendra grew up primarily in Mumbai, India, with five brothers and one sister in a home full of love, laughter, and warmth. After earning his bachelor’s degree in India, he came to the United States in the late 1960s and received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.

Dr. Doshi married his wife, Jyotika, in India on January 24, 1971, beginning a partnership that lasted 55 years. They spent the early years of their marriage in New York before settling in Appleton, where Dr. Doshi taught postgraduate students and guided their research at the Institute of Paper Chemistry until 1987. When the Institute relocated to Atlanta in the late 1980s, he chose to stay in Appleton and founded his own consulting firm, Doshi & Associates.

A leading scientist in the pulp and paper industry, Dr. Doshi was best known for developing economical methods to remove glues and adhesives from paper. He held multiple patents and authored numerous technical papers, book chapters, and journal articles.

He received numerous honors from the Technical Association for the Pulp & Paper Industry (TAPPI), including the Distinguished Service Award in 2016. In 1991, he launched the quarterly journal Progress in Paper Recycling, which later merged with the TAPPI Journal.

Teaching ran through every chapter of his life. Mahendra was a visiting professor at universities around the world. In Appleton, he was a founding member of IndUS of Fox Valley, an organization promoting Indian-American friendship and education, and served as its President from 2007 to 2009. He delighted in tutoring local children in mathematics, solving Sudoku puzzles, traveling and actively investing in the stock market. Even in his final days, he could be found watching CNBC with interest and jotting down notes on his favorite companies.

He is survived by his beloved wife, Jyotika M. Doshi; his children, Dr. Mehul (Morgan) Doshi and Urvi (Harisch) Sood; and three grandchildren, Dylan, Maya and Maddox.  He is also survived by five of his six siblings.

A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, May 2 at 11:00 a.m. at Valley Funeral Home, 2211 N. Richmond Street, Appleton. Visitation will begin at 10:00 a.m. and will continue until the time of the service with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made to IndUS of Fox Valley. For online condolences, please visit www.valleyfh.com.

Services will be live-streamed and can be viewed here: https://evt.live/dr-mahendra-doshi-service

To send flowers to the family, please visit our floral store.