[ACSians] RIP Mr Earnest Lau

From Linda Lim:

I am so glad that I met with Mr Lau at his home on Feb. 12 during my previous short visit to Singapore, when I heard he had been ill. We had a "good chat" as he called it in an email afterward, focused on his abiding passion for educating young people. Another ACSian, Hsieh Fu Hua, dropped by at the same time and joined in the conversation.

Mr. Lau was very much himself then, with the strong voice, sharp intellect and thoughtful insights--as ever. He made a big and lasting impact on many of us in many ways. In recent years I had visited him to write an article on his late mother, who was the first Singaporean to graduate from the University of Michigan, where I work, and to discuss my ACS and MGS reminiscences which (as a historian) he enjoyed and lodged with the Methodist Archives where he worked. He told me he was still writing.

It was a long time ago that he was in our lives but I will still miss him. His influence -if unrecognized then - is probably one reason for my choosing the academic profession, as he was such a role model and inspiration as scholar and teacher.

Linda Lim

Re: [ACSians] Mr Earnest Lau

 

And I loved his reddish brown big glasses for his big face....

Notice he preferred beige and khaki to black , white, dark blue etc... Light colours blended so well with his reddish brown glasses and salt-pepper hair!

He spoke during school addresses with such authority ( as always) and so much passion about being disciplined (strict, in his terminology) to one's self as a responsibility to God. Loved this! Made/makes so much sense.

Ernie... You are SO one of a kind... A very special kind. God bless you. You came right and you went right. Rest in peace.

Sent from my iPad

From Noor

[ACSians] Mr Earnest Lau

From Siri Chutikul

Earnest Lau was a teacher extraordinaire -  the best History teacher I ever had. His passion and wit instilled a love of learning in his students - the most precious gift a teacher can give a student. Many years later when I walked the tombs of Egypt, it was Mr. Lau that I was thinking of. Ancient History came alive in his classroom. He introduced us to hieroglyphics, the Philistines, the Greeks and their mythology, and more. Who could forget his discourse on Aristotle and Sophocles, Agamemnon and the Trojan War, the Iliad and the Odyssey? Or Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa? The Reischauer-Fairbank book that he assigned is still my bible on China.  It was a privilege to be in his class.  We scaled Olympian heights with him, and now we bid him peace on his last journey.

Sirilaksana (Chutikul) Khoman

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[ACSians] RIP Mr Earnest Lau - posted by Irene

 

Death of an ACS legend

Mr Lau died this evening (Saturday). He was 84. He'd had a pacemaker implanted on Tuesday. Several of his former students had visited him recently. One of them who telephoned him on Friday to find out how he was after the operation said he told her that he felt "very tired".

When I unearthed a stack of The Listener years after moving out of my family home, I couldn't help but think of Mr Lau. I had hung on to those magazines figuring that one day I'd get to finish reading them. I can't blame Mr Lau for my packrat habits but he is solely and absolutely responsible for my enduring addiction to the BBC. Forty-plus years down the road and I'm still hooked.

Thank you, Mr Lau. I'm going to miss you.

The wake will be held in the Regency Room at the Singapore Casket Company. Services on Sunday (Rev Dr Norman Wong) & Monday (Rev Gabriel Liew). The funeral will take place on Tuesday 8 Mar afternoon at Mandai (time and hall to be announced).

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From the album of Chin Heng...

From the album of Chin Heng...