THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Fr Thomas Felix CMI, 86, who founded the Central Institute on Mental Retardation (CIMR), Murinjapalam, in 1980, died at a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram due to age- related ailments. He was unwell for the last few days due to heart and kidney problems. His funeral will be held at CIMR as per his wish to continue living in the minds of his children, on Saturday at 2 pm.
Fr Felix’s body is expected to be brought to the CIMR on Friday for public viewing. A memorial prayer service will be held at Lourde Church at PMG on Saturday ahead of the funeral at the CIMR. Governor Arif Mohammed Khan who had an excellent camaraderie with Fr Felix paid respects to him by visiting the hospital mortuary on Wednesday. He had visited Fr Felix two years ago at CIMR during his 84th birthday and had spent quality time with him, staff and the special needs children there.
Fr Felix who had close association with former president A P J Abdul Kalam saw him gifting two horses, Victor and Fair Luck, both trained by the Indian Army, to the school in 2007, the final year of his term. Father Felix insisted on the horses as riding on horseback is considered to be therapeutic, especially for differently abled children. Sister Elise Mary, a senior faculty at the school told TNIE that Kalam handed over the reins of the horses at a gala event held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Fr Felix’s association with Kalam started as early as 2002, when the latter was yet to become the President. Kalam wanted to learn more about the educational method using shapes and colours, which Fr Felix had devised to teach children with mental retardation.
Kalam visited DCMR in 2002. It was functioning at Jagathy then. Much to the happiness of Fr Felix and the special needs children, Kalam wrote a Tamil song especially for them which was later translated into Malayalam. During his 42-year innings with the CIMR, Fr Felix moulded scores of special needs teachers and several thousands of special needs children and brought them to the mainstream by providing them occupational therapy. A holiday was given to the school on Wednesday as a mark of respect to Fr Felix, who had been its heart and soul.