IN MEMORIAM: Dr. Senkalong Yaden, 1935-2025

The Global Naga Forum (GNF) joins the widespread Naga public sentiments of praise and admiration for Dr. Senka Yaden’s record of excellence as a scientist and a professor, who passed away March 16, 2025, in Texas, USA, at just a month shy of 90 years, after several decades of teaching Biology in multiple colleges and a university in Texas, as well as working as a senior science associate in Osteopathic Medicine for a time.

Dr. Yaden earned a PhD in Biology from the University of Minnesota in 1965, soon after which he moved to Texas to teach at Jarvis Christian College (JCC), Hawkins, later becoming Chair of the Science Division and a full professor. After teaching at JCC for many years, he joined the Department of Pharmacology at Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine from 1981 to 1984. It was during this period that he married Theola Thedford in 1982. He returned to teaching as an Associate Professor of Science at Parker University, Dallas, Texas; moved to Alabama for a year, and was back again to Texas to chair the department of biology at Wiley College, Marshall, TX. His final professional home was Texas College, Tyler, a historically Black Methodist college, where he was a professor of biology. It was during his years in Tyler that Dr. Yaden won the prestigious professional honor by being recognized in the 1998-99 Directory of American Men and Women of Science.

It is clear to us that Dr. Yaden’s life, work, and achievements are nothing less than extraordinary when framed against the rudimentary educational and material conditions of the Naga Hills in the mid-1930s. Yet, within the first thirty years of his life, he had made his way through not only the vigors of a master’s degree in science from the University of Bombay, India, but to the most advanced country on earth and earned a PhD in biology from a prestigious university, which set him up for the rest of his distinguished professional life.

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At the news of Dr. Senka Yaden’s passing, a prominent GNF member in the homeland posted the following message: “We are proud of him. In his demise, an era has passed. His life and achievements should inspire Naga youth. That will be the finest tribute to the great man, Dr. Senka”.

As we bid farewell to Dr. Yaden, an outstanding global Naga citizen, we extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends in the homeland and the United States. Rest in Peace.

This is the press release of Global Naga Forum issued on March 18, 2025