Born on August 27, 1904 Shri. H. M. Patel had a brilliant academic career. After his education at St. Xavier's High School, Bombay he studied at Felixstowe (Suffolk) and passed the London Matriculate Examination with Latin and French as additional languages. Later he studied at the prestigious universities of Oxford and London. Subsequently he took the I C S Examination in 1926 and topped the list of candidates. Thereafter he stayed in Britain and underwent training as required by the Civil Service rules.

At the age of 23, on completion of the training, he was appointed Assistant Collector in Larkhana, Sindh. Due to his administrative acumen and efficiency he rose rapidly in the Government of India service. He held several vital posts and served the Government of India for well over 35 years. Among the various posts he held may be listed Defence Secretary, Secretary, Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Principal Cabinet Secretary.

On retiral in 1958, he decided to join the Charutar Vidya Mandal and became its Chairman. Simultaneously, on request from the Government of Gujarat he worked as Chairman, Gujarat Electricity Board as well as Chairman, Gujarat State Fertiliser Corporation and helped the two giant organizations which were newly established then come to settle down and operate efficiently.

In 1967, he decided to enter politics and contested elections. Initially, he became a member of the Gujarat legislative Assembly; thereafter he was returned to the Lok Sabha three times. During the Janata Government regime he became the Union finance Minister and undertook a wide range of fiscal reforms. For a short period he also served the country as Union Home Minister.

Among his major achievements may be listed price control, fiscal discipline, progressive Company law, Introduction of the Decimal System, and Establishment of several ordinance factories. But for him, the partition of India in 1947 would not have been a smooth transition of power.

Under his dynamic leadership the Charutar Vidya Mandai accelerated the pace of development. A new institution in line with the felt needs at the time came to be established every two years on an average. Among the large number of institutions he founded may be mentioned Nalini & Arvind Arts College, T. V. Patel Arts College, H M Patel Institute of English Training & Research, I. B. Patel English Medium Shoal, S. M. Patel College of Home Science, S. D. Desai High School, Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Resource Institute, A. R. Pharmacy College, Pramukh Swami Medical College, College of Nursing, Agro-Economic Research Centre, Vallabh Vidyanagar Technical Institute, Kala Kendra College of Fine Arts and H. M. Patel Career Development Centre.

He was greatly interested in environmental protection and conservation of the flora and fauna in the country. As Chairman, Indian Board of Wild Life, he established a lorge number of sanctuaries in the country. Further, he also served as Chairman, Project .Tiger for 3 years. In 1980 he was honoured with the coveted Albert Schweitzer Award of the Animal Welfare Institute in the Unite States.

Not many ore aware of his contribution to literature. He translated from Gujarati into English 3 novels of Shri. K. M. Munshi; 'Tapasvini', 'Prithvi-Vallabh' and 'Jay Somnath'. Among his books which have been acclaimed are 'Vitthalbhai Patel', 'Sardar Patel', 'A Policy for National Conservation' and a number of booklets in Gujarati dealing with Primary Education, Secondary Education, Economic Policies, Agriculture, Research etc.

As an ardent admirer of Sardar Patel with whom he worked during one of the most critical periods in the history of this country, he brought out books on Sardar Patel, lectured on him and encouraged people to imbibe certain qualities in their lives. Not content with this, he decided to produce a feature film on Sardar Patel. Though he did not live to see the final production, it has been widely acclaimed by critics and viewers. He was given the Nargis Dutt Award posthumously for the production of the film in 1994.

Known for his selfless service and wide association with several organizations in and out of this country, this noble son of India passed away on November 30, 1993.

On the formation of the State of Gujarat when there was a raging controversy about the age, and the class when English Instruction should commence in the school curriculum, he took the positive step of establishing this Institute out of the purse given to him on his sixtieth birthday in 1964 in order to prepare a cadre of well-trained teachers of English. This Institute over the years has immensely benefited from his guidance, advice and leadership and has come to be the nodal institution for Western India for a wide range of diversified courses, programmes and services. He believed that 0 proper study of English is a must for every educated citizen of this country.

This Institute, its faculty, present and former trainees and the parent institution Charutor Vidya Mandal pay their modest tribute to him by arranging Shri. H. M. Patel Memorial Lectures.