Desmond Wong, R.I.P.
We received the following sad news from Ho Nim Cho, “I was struck with extreme grief when my brother-in-law in Honolulu told me that Desmond Wong, one of our beloved classmates of 1957 Wah Yan College Kowloon, who gave us an impressive talk and demonstration last year (2009.07.18) in Toronto during the 1957 past students reunion, passed away suddenly at his home in Hawaii on the 4th of this month. No further information on this sad news was available, except that the funeral rites would not be arranged till June.”
Our sincerest condolences go to his family.
Chok and Chung Yu brothers write about Desmond.......
"Chok and I were equally shocked when our former 57 classmate Ho Nim Cho informed us of the sudden passing of our dear classmate Desmond Wong. We were Desmond's old classmates at WYK, and graduated at the same time in '57. We left HK in '59 and have been in the US ever since. The onset of age has heightened our desire to reconnect with our old classmates. After quite a few futile attempts, we finally successful located Desmond. Typical of Desmond, his enthusiastic response quickly put us at ease and led to some warm email exchanges soon after. Desmond was excited about the prospect of meeting both of us in the Toronto reunion last summer. We now regret very much that we did not make it to the reunion, thinking there would be plenty of occasions for us to meet again. If we did, it would have been our first and unknowingly "last" meeting with Desmond. Who would have thought that we would not be given another chance to see him!
His passing is both sad and tragic in a way because we have such fond memories of him during our school days. He was such a dynamic person, very articulate as manifested in our many school debates with the girl schools, and a wit that was hard to match. He was always cheerful and positive and that, as far as we could tell, remained so to his last days. Although we cannot celebrate our reunion with him, we shall cherish the memory of him for the rest of our lives. We feel blessed for having the opportunity to share our earlier lives with such a unique and extraordinary person. We should all celebrate his life while mourning his passing. We have expressed our sincerest condolences to his wife Dorothy, and would like to extend that to all his friends. May he rest in peace, and may our prayers be with his family always."