In a letter to members of the Wah Yan family in November 1992, Father Coghlan writes, 
"......
I am a relative newcomer to Wah Yan, Hong Kong so I didn’t know the older Jesuits, the pillars of Wah Yan, very much.  However, I knew Fr. Derek Reid for eleven years in Wah Yan College, Kowloon and for four years here in Wah Yan.  I would like to share my impressions of this very good man with you. 

I think Fr. Reid was at his best, his most productive in Wah Yan, Kowloon largely because his health was good at the time, and because he was in a position where he could show his ability, confidence and patience.  During his second spell in Wah Yan, Hong Kong his health was beginning to deteriorate.  However, despite his more obvious success in Wah Yan, Kowloon it must be said that his first love and greatest love was Wah Yan, Hong Kong.  He always had a great affection for it. 

Fr. Reid was a dedicated man.  He was an ascetical man.  He had conquered himself.  He was a man of penance.  He was a man of penance.  In what sense?  He did what he believed God wanted him to do and he did it before he did anything else.  After his ordination he was a full time teacher/educational administrator from 1960 to the very day he died in November 1992.  He gave everything he had to the job.  He didn’t let anything interfere with it.  In that sense he was a man of penance. 

Fr. Reid dearly enjoyed a glass of whisky and a chat.  He was a very pleasant and sociable community man.  He loved sports of all kinds.  As a young man he was a very good Gaelic footballer and soccer player.  On leave he watched cricket on T.V. with intense enjoyment.  He rarely missed following the Hong Kong Golf Open final day on foot and loved a game of tennis on a Sunday afternoon.  He was an easy man to be with.  He was quiet and reserved but we depended on him as one of the mainstays of our community because you could count on him to be there good-humoured and serene.  But he was always humorous and kindly, never bitter or aggressive.  In that sense Fr. Reid did not give the impression of being a grim, driven ascetic.  He was a strong man because he was available to God.  He was trustworthy.  He was where he believed God wanted him to be. 

He did his job very well.  He never, never looked for the limelight, but he had an influence on education in Hong Kong through his painstaking membership of several committees.  Fr. Deignan testifies that it was a dream to succeed him as principal.  Everything was in order.  I was indebted to his dedication too. 

Fr. Reid deserves much praise for giving a great boost to student participation in the running of a school.  I believe he was somewhat of a pioneer in the area.  He gave great freedom to the students in Wah Yan, Kowloon to run their own affairs.  Fr. Reid was a careful man.  None of us like to be made look foolish.  Yet, he had the courage to take the risk of giving the students their head, even when others hesitated. 

Fr. Reid was a very good man to go for advice.  He was cool and level headed.  I put his down again to his asceticism.  He was dead to himself and his own convenience.  He looked at what was for the over-all good.  He didn’t just look for a peaceful life or a quick, flashy success, much less for something dishonest.  He used to say, “Wait a bit” or “No hurry”.  In other words “Don’t do things in a temper or in a panic”. 

Above all, Fr. Reid was fair, absolutely fair.  I think teachers liked that and admired him for it, even when they may not have agreed with everything he decided or did.  Because he was a very honest and dedicated man, he did not like people who might have been a bit dishonest or self-seeking or “smooth”.

But he took them as they came.  Despite being a very law abiding man he always had a soft spot for the dishonest rascals, the lively ones, the boys who got into trouble.  It was quite surprising the people (young and old) who came to him, and looked on him as a friend and confidant. 

Finally, I want to share something quite significant with you.  Fr. Reid had a good sense of humour. 

Very shortly before he died he told some of us with wry amusement that he had gone to the trouble of typing out a lovely prayer he had found in a book.  A little later he found that it was a hymn that all of us priests recite regularly in our Divine Office.  Ruefully, we, too, perhaps have to admit that like Fr. Reid we may occasionally dream through our sacred duty. 

Apart from the significance of the fact that Fr. Reid could chuckle at himself, the hymn itself was very significant considering the way Fr. Reid lived and the distressing way he died.  It shows that Fr. Reid was a man of faith who believed God was near, even at his shoulder.  That belief must have been the source of his dedication, kindliness and serenity. 

Alone with none but thee, my God,
I journey on my way:
What need I fear, when thou are near,
O King of night and day?
More safe am I within thy hand,
Than if a host did round me stand. 

My destined time is fixed by thee,
And death doth know his hour.
Did warriors strong around me throng,
They could not stay his power;
No walls of stone can man defend
When thou thy messenger dost send. 

My life I yield to thy decree,
And bow to thy control
In peaceful calm, for from thine arm
No power can wrest my soul.
Could earthly omens o’er appal
A man that heeds the heavenly call! 

The child of God can fear no ill,
His chosen dread no foe;
We leave our fate with thee, and wait
Thy bidding when to go.
'Tis not from chance our comfort springs,
Thou art our trust, O King of kings."

[http://wykontario.org/wykaao_doc/61_in_%20memory_%20of/Fr%20Reid%20Dereik%20SJ.pdf 

by Yu Fong-Ying and Wong Hin-Shing."]