Geeta Shirish Shah

Geeta Shirish Shah — beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and pillar of the Richmond community — passed away on July 11, 2026, surrounded by her family, after a three-year journey with glioblastoma. She was 79. 

Born in 1946 in Bharuch, India, to the late Kundanlal and Urmila Shroff, Geeta was the youngest daughter — though not the youngest child — in a family of seven, and, likely, her father's favorite. She grew up wealthy in Mumbai, formally trained in Indian classical dance, with a lifelong love of painting and music. 

In 1969, she married Shirish Manubhai Shah, leaving a comfortable life in India to follow him to America. A few years later, pregnant with their first child, she returned from a trip to India having seen how modestly Shirish's parents were living. She and Shirish made a decision that would define them: the money set aside for their own first home went instead toward a better home for his parents. It was an early, quiet example of a pattern that repeated itself for the rest of her life — she put people first, and figured the rest out afterward. 

They built a life from almost nothing, moving across several states before settling in Richmond, Virginia in 1991. She raised her two children, Mrunal and Parul, with a deep grounding in their Gujarati heritage and Hindu faith. 

In Richmond, she became a founding member of the Cultural Center of India, a formally trained judge for FOGANA classical dance competitions worldwide, and, in her later years, most active and most beloved within the Hindu temple communities. There, she poured her energy into the people around her and into the temple's children — choreographing and mentoring them for the dance and religious recitals held each year, helping kids who had never performed find the confidence to do so. She traveled the world with a close circle of friends, endlessly curious about how other people lived and prayed — though famously a picky eater; wherever she went, she tracked down the nearest Indian restaurant, and when all else failed, French fries on every continent along the way. Her warmth also carried her into every place of worship — churches, mosques, Buddhist temples, and synagogues — and she built genuine friendships with senators, governors, and civic leaders across the city. At 57 — after a lifetime of putting everyone else first — she went back to school for herself, earning her master's degree in Human Resource Management from VCU, motivated by watching her own children build their lives and wanting to know she still could too. 

She shared her love of Bollywood movies with her granddaughters, one of many small, ongoing threads that kept her woven into every generation of the family. 

Through her final three years, she was cared for tirelessly by her husband Shirish, and was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love from the many lives she had touched — dance students, temple children she had mentored, civic leaders, and friends across every faith she had embraced. Even in that season, she kept her sense of humor: she never turned down an ice cream bar, and an Indian snack made just the way she liked it could fix almost anything. 

Geeta is survived by her husband, Shirish Manubhai Shah; her son, Mrunal Shah, his wife Bella, and daughters Sonali and Nina; her daughter, Parul Shah Agarwal, her husband Prasheen, and children Prian and Parisa; her brother Rashmin Shroff and sisters Rekha Dalal and Kinnari Kashiparekh; and many beloved nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, and by her siblings Krishnakant Shroff, Jyoti Gandhi, and Nitin Shroff. 

She never needed the spotlight. She was always too busy making sure it found you.

A prayer service will begin at 9am, followed by cremation, at Newcomer Funeral Home, NW Chapel, 10051 Brewster Lane, Powell, OH 43065 on Monday, July 13, 2026.

As a traditional Hindu ceremony will be performed, the family asks that you please wear white or light colors.