S. Rajaram, chairman of Sivananda Saraswathi Sevashram, died Tuesday. He was 67 and was hospitalised for sometime.

His son Kishore Rajaram, president of the organisation, said his father took over the reins from his grandparents when he was barely a teen in the early 1970s. “At that time, it was just a thatched building with three children. Today, we have 350 residents, including children and the elderly. We also run six schools with around 4,000 students. My father, with my mother Lakshmi Rajaram, has worked all these years tirelessly for the welfare of others,” he said.

In the 1980s, he adopted 50 Sri Lankan refugee children from the Mandapam camp and took care of them.

Mr. Rajaram, a Padma Shri awardee, also worked in a bank from which he took voluntary retirement. He is survived by his wife and two sons.