St.Anthony Teluk Intan Through The Years: Memories of Mr Anthony Kee (1950s

Mr Anthony Kee King Huat has dedicated his youth and prime years to SMK St Anthony since the 1950s and continues to serve the school and the Lasallian mission as a member of the Board of Governors of the school. Mr Kee was educated at St Anthony’s ( 1949 -1959) and on completing his Senior Cambridge School Certificate in 1959 joined the Education Service as an administrative assistant, a capacity in which he served till his retirement in June 1997. That gives us a total of 37 years in the portals and corridors of St Anthony’s. No one person has so comprehensive a vantage view of the story of our school as Mr Anthony Kee. His exuberant Anthonian spirit has so often impelled him into roles and contributions that go far beyond the duties in the school office.He has been called upon every so often to counsel and discipline students and to defuse problems faced by parents. Most of all, he has served as financial adviser to more than thirteen principals , and continues to give the benefit of his rich administrative and financial expertise to the school to this day.

Memories of St Anthony’s, Teluk Intan –

Mr Anthony Kee

Full name: Anthony Kee King Huat

Educated at St Anthony’s Primary & Secondary School,Teluk Intan (1949 - 1959)

Date of Birth: 25.6.1942

Date of Appointment at SMK St Anthony: 5.1.1960

Retired on: 25.6.1997 (37 years of service at his alma mater)

27^th June 1997: Awarded the Lasallian Gold Medallion by the Brother Visitor of the Lasallian Schools (Malaysia-Singapore-Hongkong)

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Date of interview: 23^rd March 2019

Interviewer: Mr Louis Rozario Doss

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In recognition of his services to the Lasallian fraternity, Mr Anthony Kee was awarded the Lasallian Medallion on his retirement in 1997.

Mr Anthony Kee (Left) with Brother Matthew Bay,Director,Lasalle Schools Perak

Mr Kee,tell us about the teachers who had the first impact on your life as a student at St Anthony's.

I should like to begin with the late Mr Austin Ambrose who was my class teacher in Standard One. Apart from having been a model of excellent (Singaporean) English, Mr Ambrose was very particular that one should use only the right hand for writing purposes! This was an unusual predicament for me. I was probably born a left-hander. I was left-legged at football and left-handed at badminton. Nevertheless, as I look back over the past many years, Mr Ambrose has won the battle of right versus left. Like me, many Anthonians owe their handwriting orientation to the late Mr Austin Ambrose. This example is only one of many in my life where students will excel when teachers have high expectations of their students. Most appropriately, in later years, when the primary school was separated physically from the secondary school,Mr Austin Ambrose,was appointed headmaster of St Anthony’s Primary School. I also remember Mr J.D.Weller who was an extremely versatile teacher and a great pillar of St Anthony’s in the 1950s and early 60s. He was ,together with Mr Martin Yong, a great stalwart of the St John Ambulance. He was proficient in both English and Malay – something rare in those days. He was also a wonderful geography teacher.

Q What are your memories of Mr Au Kee Soon?

Yes, I remember distinctly that he was the first headmaster of our original Primary School before the separation. He made his mark on every student by his firm insistence on good handwriting. In those days, before the arrival of computers, laptops and handphones, elegant and legible handwriting was one of the marks of a good education. It was part of the culture of an educated society.

Q You have often spoken of Brother Benignus. What is his claim to fame in the history of our school?

Brother Benignus is a remarkable model and inspiration to all educators. He was an educator extraordinaire in many ways. First, in those days , young people who joined the Lasalle Order came into the missionary life with the MCE/OSC – what we call the Senior Cambridge qualification (Form 5) today. They had a basic teacher training qualification as well. If they aspired to do a degree, they had to do it as an external part-time course. This was a great burden for any conscientious teacher,what with a whole teaching-marking load as well as co-curricular and administrative duties. Brother Benignus was one of the early trail-blazers who proved that the degree was attainable. He successfully combined school duties and degree studies and obtained the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Classics ( majoring in Greek) from the University of London.

At school, Brother Benignus was one of the most versatile teachers. He taught a whole array of subjects ranging from English and History to Scripture and Mathematics! He also taught us Gregg shorthand and typewriting after normal school hours. As an English teacher, he was an indefatigable campaigner for better essay writing. He would arrive at school for the first two periods to discuss an essay topic and collect the fully written essays by 9.00 a.m. By 11 a.m that very morning, the essays would be returned to us fully marked,graded and with enlightening comments on the areas for improvement.

Brother Benignus was a master journalist who initiated the school magazine – “The Anthonian” from its inception in 1955. Every school magazine in the later 1950s and 1960s bears the imprint of his flair for journalism. We owe everything to him for initiating and sustaining this journalistic tradition which has preserved for posterity the memories of generations of Anthonians.

Q You have worked under 13 Principals at SMK St Anthony. Did you have to dance to different tunes?

I wouldn’t go so far as to say they were so different in style and substance. There was a high degree of consistency among the principals over the years. This is partly because of the strong Anthonian ethos established by the Lasalle Brothers . The lay principals who succeeded the Brothers deserve high credit because they all respected and honoured the cherished Lasalllian traditions. Among all the principals I worked under, I am sure we must make special mention of Brother Damian Oliver, Director (1965 - 1974) who raised the school from its plateau in the 1960s to its pre-eminence as a Sixth Form school in the 1970s with the national status of a premier school. It was during Bro Damian’s time that St Anthony’s overtook its rivals in Lower Perak to become the school of first choice for most parents. He also stands out as a man of great personal humility who was able to command high respect through his benign approach to people and their problems.You always felt respected when he spoke to you and listened to you. There was never a time when he lost his temper or raised his voice. He believed firmly in the biblical wisdom that “a soft answer turns away wrath”.

Q What are your memories of Father Matthias Ki? What role did he play in the development of St Anthony’s School?

Father Matthias Ki

Father Matthias Ki had a great impact on the progress of all the Catholic Mission Schools in Hilir Perak.He was the Parish Priest in Teluk Intan in the 1960s and early 1070s. He was a great entrepreneur who raised funds for St Anthony’s and the Convents in Hilir Perak. He took good care of the Brothers and the Sisters by promoting a strong bonding among all the religious educators in Hilir Perak.They often gathered at the Parish House in the church grounds opposite our school for convivial meals and get-togethers.

Q Do you recall the life story of Father Ki?

He was born in China in the 1930s to a tribal Hakka family. He began his seminary studies for the Catholic priesthood but his studies were interrupted by the closure of all religious seminaries following the Communist Revolution in 1949. Matthias Ki was among the seminarians who left mainland China to complete their preparation for the priesthood. Some left for Hongkong and Taiwan but Matthias Ki managed to join the College-General in Penang where he completed his seminary studies.He was ordained for the priesthood in Malaya and was posted to Teluk Intan initially as an Asssistant to the Parish Priest before he became the Parish Priest in the 1960s and 1970s.

Q What was Father Ki’s legacy to the Catholic educational mission in Lower Perak?

Father Ki played a pivotal role in setting up Assumption School in the 1960s to take care of boys and girls who did not do well academically in the Standard 6 and Lower Certificate of Education (Form 3) examination. He was a truly far-sighted pastor who did not believe in excluding the less-academically inclined from the education system.

Besides that, Father Ki was the middle-man who helped secure the land in Sungei Nibong on which our primary school was relocated in the 1960s. He was also the key figure in the setting up of St Anthony’s Branch (Primary) School in Langkap. Father Ki did this with the Orang Asli children in mind. He wanted a school which would give priority to the social and economic upliftment of the marginalized Orang Asli community. In that sense, Father Ki was a man very much ahead of his times.

Q What are your memories of the lay principals who succeeded the Lasallian directors at St Anthony’s?

All our lay principals lived up to the highest expectations of the school community. Some of them were Lasaliians in terms of background but several came from non-Lasallian backgrounds.Nevertheless, they fitted in very well with the school’s traditions and some of them stand out as among the greatest principals of St Anthony’s. One of these was Tuan Haji Omar bin Mazar Ali, our first Malay principal. He was a high caliber administrator who was very firm and fair to all. He was instrumental in upgrading the school administration and SOPs in office administration. Another principal who helped upgrade the school’s infrastructure was Tuan Haji Azahari Arbi who was later promoted as District Education Officer of Lower Perak. Yes, looking back, I must pay a special tribute to all our lay principals for sustaining the Lasallian traditions at our school.

The evergreeen family of Mr Anthony Kee.- a wonderful branch of the wider Anthonian family

Q What is your message to your fellow Anthonians throughout the world?

I wish you all the very best in your endeavours. Be doing and daring,as we are enjoined to do in our school song, but let us always be guided by the spirit of charity in all we do. Spare a thought for your alma mater.Come back to visit your school from time to time. Help the school to move forward in the service of the young. Support the worthy causes associated with our alma mater. “Render with joy to your mater her due!”