Sandip Jain Gupta of Richardson, Texas passed away February 20, 2025 at the age of 38. He was born to Suhas Chandra Gupta and Indira Jain on September 27, 1986 in Dallas, Texas.
Sandip graduated from Plano East Senior High School and went on to earn his Bachelors from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. He most recently worked at Garner Health as the Director of Partnerships, applying his business intelligence skills, technical imagination and marketing savvy to the goal of reforming the healthcare industry.
Sandip enjoyed a rich life outside of work, passing on his champion debating skills to the next generation by judging at speech tournaments across the country. He also put his public speaking skills to personal use by generously emceeing the weddings of multiple friends and family members. He was an avid sports fan, particularly of college and NFL football, and was a dedicated fantasy football player. Sandip also followed NBA and college basketball closely, treating his loved ones (ahem, and himself) to platinum seats on more than one occasion. His passion for Broadway musicals meant anyone who got a ride in his car would be listening to showtunes en route to their destination. Oftentimes, that destination was another show or an exciting new restaurant. Though as he got older, it became harder to find a restaurant with dishes better than the ones Sandip created himself. Sandip was the “glue” that held his family and friends together. He will be greatly missed.
Sandip is survived by his parents, Suhas and Indira Gupta of Richardson, Texas; sister, Tanuja Jain Gupta and husband, Ravin Shah of New York, New York; several aunts, uncles, cousins; and a host of other loving family and friends.
A funeral service was held at 4:00 p.m., Monday, February 24, 2025 at Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Funeral Home, 2525 Central Expressway North, Allen, Texas 75013.
https://bit.ly/SandipMemorialProgram - Printed programs given to all who attended in person.
https://bit.ly/SandipMemorial - The livestream had an issue, but we captured a recording on Zoom. The recording starts just a hair late during the prayer, but during the opening remarks, Sandip's family shared that Sandip was an organ donor. He gave his corneas, and now two people will get their sight back because of him.
https://bit.ly/SandipTributeVideo - At the end of Sandip's sister's eulogy, this is the ~5 minute tribute video that played. We suggest stopping the memorial service recording and watching this tribute video directly for better audio / visual quality.
Contributions in Sandip's Honor - Sandip attended Plano East Senior High School (PESH) where he earned numerous local, state and national awards for his speech and debate skills. Winning those awards took practice and exposure to opportunities. (i.e. it’s difficult to win the National Championship if you’ve never competed in any other national tournament during the season). Four talented students currently on the PESH Speech and Debate team have qualified for prestigious national tournaments in Chicago (https://sites.northwestern.edu/tocextemp/) and Kentucky (https://ci.uky.edu/debate/toc) this Spring, but the steep entry fees of these tournaments (plus food and travel costs) hinder their ability to participate. Thus, the Gupta family has made an immediate, initial contribution to cover the full expenses of these four students across both tournaments.
Sandip worked closely with the coach of the PESH team, Madi Gackenbach, who has grown the team from thirty to 120 students during her seven year tenure. The team now ranks fifth in the state of Texas, and aspires to grow its national presence. In the months before Sandip passed, he and Madi were setting up coaching sessions for the PESH students so they could eventually secure national titles - just as Sandip did during his debating days (see https://bit.ly/SandipAwardsSample). Madi shares that “while the students will unfortunately never have the benefit of Sandip’s coaching, this initial contribution will start to help fulfill Sandip’s original goal of giving back to his high school alma mater to develop the next generation of speech and debate talent.”
If you would like to contribute to the PESH Speech and Debate team so that the students may grow their speaking and debating skills on the national scene for years to come, you can donate to the PESH Booster Club (a registered 501(c)3, EIN 82-3319549) through Zelle or Paypal to eastsidesdbooster@gmail.com or mail a check to the following address:
Plano East Senior High School
Attn: Madi Gackenbach, Speech & Debate
3000 Los Rios Blvd, Plano, TX 75074
(Memo: In Honor of Sandip) See here for more details.