Saturday, September 19, 2009

Departure of a good friend Chionh Eng Wee



After visiting my mom at TTSH, I dropped by at the Singapore Casket to pay respect to a colleague and friend, Associate Professor Chionh Eng Wee (http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~chionhew), who had succumbed to cancer after a three-year fight. He is survived by his wife and son.

I've known Eng Wee for many years, though not very close personally. I remember him as a very helpful and courteous guy. My closest working experience with him is the National Olympiad in Informatics, when his first became a member of the Scientific Committee in the inaugural event in 1998, and became the Chairman of the Scientific Committee in the following year, holding the position through the years except for 2002 when he was on sabbatical leave, and 2007 when he stepped down due to his health. All these years, when I started as the Honorary Secretary of NOI and later the Chairman of NOI in 2005, he had been of tremendous help and had contributed greatly to the success of the yearly event.

He had his own views about education and the students. I still remember his insistence that all Computing students must know regular expressions, and his disagreement on how mathematics are taught in schools these days.

Due to his very amiable nature, many colleagues like to tease him, and he was absolutely cool about it.

I'm saddened at the loss of a wonderful guy. May he rest in peace.


[Eng Wee's wake is at the Singapore Casket, 131 Lavendar Street, Emerald Room (level 3). There will be a service at about 8pm tonight. The cremation will be held tomorrow (21 September) 4:30pm at Mandai. They will leave for the cremation at about 3:30pm.)]

Aaron

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