Professor "Bob" Baldev Singh

As a young man, Kartar Singh Kajla left Punjab and came to the United States. He arrived in 1924. As most Punjabis did in Yuba City, CA, Kajla was employed on local farms and worked hard to save money. By the late-1940s, he had saved enough to buy his own property where he raised fruit trees.

Kajla returned to India only once in 1950, at which time he married Verinder Kaur (1951), the sister of Baldev Singh. Together they raised four children. Remembered as a good-natured man and always helpful, he was instrumental in his nephew's life. Kajla filed an affidavit of support to bring Singh to the United States as a student in 1954 and helped him to adjust to life in the United States.

Kajla was proud of his Indian heritage and helped to organize the annual India Republic Day celebration in Yuba City on January 26th. He passed away in 1970 after living over forty years in California. May his life, and that of all the Punjabi pioneers, be memorialized for future generations to appreciate.