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.
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)
27th 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: 23rd 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.
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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?
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Father Matthias Ki |
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.
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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!”
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Mr Anthony Kee with Nanda, Mr Aru and Blogger Louis |
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Blogger Louis RozarioDoss (First Right Front Row)
HP 0 10-3905011 email:louisrozariodoss@yahoo.co.uk
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