My Chemistry Teacher

Recently, I received a parcel sent from North Carolina of USA. It's from my former English Secondary School Math teacher, Edward Greenawald. That's a huge collection of black-and-white photos taken in the 60's when he taught in the Lok Yuk English Secondary School, Jesselton. He is now in his seventies and single and that's probably why he decided to send the whole collection of photos to me for safe keeping.

Among the photos, I saw a snap shot taken in the staff room most likely in 1966. One of the teachers is my former Chemistry teacher, Mr. Chuah Eng Wah who passed away late last year.

I remember the news of his passing did come as a bit of surprise but not entirely unexpected. I last met him probably just less than two years ago and he looked fit and healthy. His final health condition was only known when I paid my last respect to his remains on 29 November 2016 at the funeral parlor. He was in fact diagnosed with prostate cancer some five years ago.

He was always being fondly addressed as "Mr. Chuah" by his students in those days. Even during my last encounter with him, I still addressed him as such because we considered him as our teacher for life. Mr. Chuah was not considered an exceptional teacher. Being a Taiwan graduate, he spoke with a typical kind of English characteristic with people who studied in Taiwan. His most well known phrase is "Yes Not" whenever he sought confirmation from his students whether his teaching was understood or otherwise. "Yes Not" is literally "是不是?" in Chinese. His inadequacy in English proficiency was well made up by his hard work and kindness to his students.

Teaching Staff of Lok Yuk Secondary School Likas 1966.
3rd from right is Chuah Eng Wah

Teaching Staff of Lok Yuk Secondary School Likas 1969.
Back row 4th from right is Chuah Eng Wah

With eldest daughter of Chuah Eng Wah, Chuah Yuan San
taken on 29 Nov 2016.

He was both my Form Teacher and Chemistry Teacher in Form 4 in 1968. I still have in my possession the Form 4 Report Card with the marks of the numerous subjects personally entered by him. Other than Chemistry, I was not considered good at most of the other subjects. I barely scrapped through my English and failed once in my Physics. But by God's grace, I passed my A Level and graduated later on as a Civil Engineer. In a way, the subject of Chemistry did have a bearing on my choice in pursuing an engineering degree eventually.