UPL publisher Mohiuddin Ahmed passes away

Mohiuddin Ahmed, emeritus publisher and director of The University Press Limited (UPL), passed away early Tuesday. He was 77.

Mohiuddin breathed his last at 12:59am, said his daughter Mahrukh Mohiuddin on his facebook post. 

His namaaz-e-janaza was held at Gulshan Azad mosque after Zuhr prayers today.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today expressed deep shock and sorrow at the death of the founder of the University Press Limited (UPL) Mahiuddin Ahmed.

In a condolence message, the Prime Minister prayed for eternal peace of the departed soul and conveyed deep sympathy to the bereaved family.

Mohiuddin Ahmed was born in 1944 at Parashuram in Feni. His father was a high-ranking officer in the British Indian Postal Service.

While a student at Notre Dame College, he was the managing editor of Blue and Gold, a college magazine.

After graduating from Dhaka University with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism, Mohiuddin studied journalism at Punjab University with a Pakistan Council Scholarship.

At that time he was the editor of the Punjab University Chronicle.

After completing his MA, he joined Pakistan Times as an apprentice journalist.

Within the first two months of joining the job, he got an offer to join the Department of Journalism, Punjab University as an Assistant Lecturer in Mass Communication and Public Relations.

The political upheavals during 1969 made Mohiuddin Ahmed realise that staying in Pakistan for much longer would not be ideal. Hence, he applied to Stanford University, and was accepted as a PhD student, with a hefty scholarship. However, around the same time, there was an advertisement circulated by Oxford University Press (OUP), which was looking for someone for the "Editor for Pakistan" position. 

Mohiuddin Ahmed could not resist the opportunity and ended up going in for the interview. He bagged the job and worked there until 1972.

On his return to the country, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of OUP Dhaka Branch for two years.

In 1975, when the Dhaka office of OUP was closed down, Ahmed decided to start UPL as a successor of OUP, as he was the chief executive in the branch

UPL was established in 1975 as a successor to Oxford University Press' Dhaka branch where Mohiuddin Ahmed was chief executive.

Under his leadership, publishing industry led to winning the National Book Centre Award 16 times since 1981.

In May 1988, Mohiuddin Ahmed was awarded a Cultural Doctorate in Publishing Management by the World University's international secretariat at Benson, Arizona.

In 1991, he was awarded the gold medal.

The Prime Minister of Norway invited a total of 17 publishers from around the world for recognition for their contribution to the development of the environment. Mohiuddin was one of them.

In 2012, Mohiuddin published Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's 'The Unfinished Memoirs'.

In 2014, he was awarded the title of 'Emeritus Publisher' by the Bangladesh Academic and Creative Publishers Association.