ANNA Jayasothy Pillai was a pioneering force behind the establishment of Methodist Girls School in Raub, Pahang, in 1948.

BETTY Boey’s outstanding contribution to education was brief, yet widely recognised by her students and peers.

 

WHAT'S the recipe for a long life? According to Mata Geo, live on a very simple diet.

 

She worked out that chappati, bittergourd, mustard leaves (sawi), ladies fingers and potatoes contained all the nutrients for healthy living.

And for much of her 106 years, she and her family ate nothing else.

PONNIAH Sahathevan was a distinguished educationist and an important contributor to the development of the Klang Apex Club, a service organisation that addresses the needs of the less fortunate - the handicapped, the destitute and the underprivileged.

FOR V. Parameswaran, driving public buses was his life. He spent 23 years doing this, 15 of this on the Nilai-Seremban route.

 

 

KIREEN Marshall was known for her work on health issues with the respected Consumers Association of Penang (CAP).

 

After she joined CAP in July 1989 as a health research officer, she and her colleagues worked for the association to take a lead on health issues in the State of Penang, the nation and the world at large.

J. AMALADOSS was one of the pioneers of the Gaya Teachers' Training College for secondary school teachers in Sabah, then known as British North Borneo before joining Malaysia in 1963.

Then teaching mathematics at St John's Institution in Kuala Lumpur, Amaladoss was invited to be on the team to establish the Gaya Teachers' Training College in Kota Kinabalu.

ONE of Malaysia's finest classical violinists, Yogeswary Nagalingam, who died in Chennai, India, on Aug 24 at the age of 84, was a musician who aroused extreme reactions among her fans.

But none could deny her personal virtuosity, the mercurial speed and power of her play and, in her prime, her accuracy and masterly touch of the violin.

THE story goes that S. Jacob turned back, year after year, the many gift hampers that came to his door during festive seasons.

He wasn’t comfortable with these “goodwill” gestures that came gift-wrapped to his humble quarters as a matter of principle.

DATUK Brother Lawrence Spitzig, who died aged 91, was thought by many in the education world to have been an outstanding educationist of his generation.

For 26 years he taught at La Salle Brothers schools - St Joseph's Institution in Singapore, St John's Institution, Bukit Nanas, St Xavier's Institution in Penang and at the La Salle, Petaling Jaya,  with a dynamic energy and vis

WHEN Heong Shik was 14, his father rushed him out of China to escape possible torture and kidnap by bandits and warlords that were widespread in Fosan, Guangdong province in the years before the coming of the Red Guards, an organisation of young Communist Party toughs.

It may be wondered why any parent would allow a child to be subjected to such state sanctioned upheavals which was a way of life in old China.

IN a teaching career spanning 33 years, Wong Pit Tai had a profound influence on women’s teaching. For most of that time she taught English and Geography with energy and dedication, fostering discussions and tolerance among her students.

GNANESWARAN Chelliah was essentially a modest man of medium build, who enjoyed a pioneering career as an innovative hospital administrator.

Much of his early interest in hospital work was awakened by his Sri-Lankan-born father Chelliah Elagupillai, a popular dispenser who ran a long-time clinic in Klang.

AT the beginning of the last  century in China, life among the revolutionaries forging a new society was very uncertain.

HANNA Cheriyan Varghese’s death has taken an original and innovative talent off the Malaysian art scene. She was a leading visual artist, renowned for expressing her Christian faith and spirited thoughts in lively imagery.

She was, from the beginning, involved with new and exacting work in different media such as oil, acrylic, batik, metal-tooling and wood-block printing. She was passionately dedicated to exploring new forms and courageously inventive in her painting, up until the weeks before she died in Kuala Lumpur on June 12, aged 71.

 

HE was affectionately known to friends as "Radio Bala" for his yeoman service to the broadcasting industry.

He rose to prominence through his contribution to the development of Radio-Television Malaysia (RTM), the National Broadcasting Training Centre (NBTC) and the Asian Institute of Broadcasting Development (AIBD).

 

THE knock on the door came at two in the morning.

Motor mechanic Mathavan Nair, then 27, was led out in his bedclothes by Japanese soldiers to a military garrison in Ipoh, where scores of stalled jeeps and lorries lay idle. They needed to be fixed.