Born on 21st March 1923 as the only son of Thiru P.Nachimuthu Gounder and Shrimathi Rukmaniammal at Somanthurai Chittoor, Pollachi.


His grand parents were traditional agriculturists. His father Thiru P.Nachimuthu Gounder laid the seeds for goods transportation with a couple of country carts which graduated into a fleet of lorries for goods transportation and then into a fleet of buses viz. ABT for passenger transportation.

He had his school education at Pollachi. He obtained his B.Sc., (1942) in Physics at Loyola College, Madras. He joined the college of Engineering, Guindy, Madras and obtained his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering (1945). He became an AMIE in 1951, MIE in 1975 and FIE in 1981 of the Institution of Engineers. He had been Chairman of the Institution of Engineers between 1964 and 1966.

Bharathiar University, Coimbatore decorated him with Doctor of Laws (1984) while Anna University, Madras with Doctor of Science (1988).