Wrote the article “BOC College Student” for RIT Alumni International Newsletter
Business Manager for the publication of Rangoon University Engineering Students’ Union Annual Magazine in 1952-53.
Graduated in 1954 with Civil Engineering
MS from MIT as a recipient of the “Twinning Program” proposed by Saya U Ba Hli
Attended SPZP-2000 held in San Francisco. He requested to be seated with Sayagyis.
Letter in 2012
My dear Ko Aung Gyi:
I tried to e-mail you several times in the past few months but they didn’t get through. I was wondering where have you been and how were you doing.
By the way, as I am unable to attend the great Reunion myself, I have two important proposals for you to consider and, if you thought appropriate, present to the Reunion Organizing Committee:
(1) That at the start of the reunion the whole body of attendees should pay respects to Sayagyi U Ba Hli and Dr. Murray P. Horwood from MIT who were instrumental in getting scholarships and admissions for Burmese graduates and students to MIT, Harvard (San Tun Aung and Nelson Chin graduated from there), Cornell (Kyit In [Min Wun] and Kyaw Win), Michigan State, Ann Arbor & East Lansing, Lehigh, even UCLA (my R.U. College of Engineering classmate graduate Ohn Ghine went there) etc. As you know, Dr. Horwood headed the team of professors from MIT to RU Eng. College back in the 1950’s – – that’s how it got started for the Burmese boys like myself to come to the U.S. for further studies.
(2) I believe that this similar kind of arrangement with MIT or other institutions could and should be made with the Myanmar govt and RIT now for Myanmar to catch up with the world. If you have a chance to meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, please tell her about this proposal. Education and higher education, esp. technical and medical, is extremely important for Myanmar students and graduates and for the country, and no one should overlook this.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration of the above.
My best wishes for a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to you and your family and all our Sayas, colleagues and friends at the Reunion, in Myanmar and overseas. Please take a lot of pictures at the reunion for me!
Aw Taik Moh
1954 B.Sc. Civil Engineering, R.U. Eng. College
M.C.P.(City Planning) M.I.T. 1957
P.S. Since I attended the last reunion in San Francisco many years ago the RIT Committee lost contact with me, otherwise I would have contributed something to the “Book” they are now publishing about the history of the university (which I heard of from Dr. Chris Lee). I want to let you and the Committee know that I have an original copy of the R.U. Engineering Students’ Union Magazine, published in 1953 – in both Burmese and English – for which I was a Business Manager when I was a 3rd year engineering student. It has the photos of Sayagyi U Ba Hli and the entire faculty and Dr. Horwood and all the students.
Updates
RUESU published six Annual Magazines
Saya U Moe Aung was Editor of the magazine for 1960 – 61
He graduated with Mechanical Engineering from Rangoon University in 1960
Worked for JVC run by relatives. Read news about State Scholarship
Masters in Agricultural Engineering from Virginia Tech in the USA
He had to return by sea taking the Ocean liner Warwickshire of Bibby Line. He became friends with Saya Allen Htay (GBNF), Saya U Soe Paing and Saya U Ko Ko Lay (GBNF). They spent evenings playing Bridge.
Upon his arrival in Rangoon, he visited RIT to pay respect to Saya U Ba Than. Saya asked if he would like to join Agri Dept. (sub-dept of Mechanical). Some Agri students were having a hard time following Soviet lecturers via their interpreters.
Later moved to Thailand & USA
Informal Group
Saya Allen, Saya U Tin Maung Nyunt, U Ko Ko Aye, Ko Thein Naing / Patrick and I would get together for lunch or brunch.
Saya Allen and U Ko Ko Aye are now GBNF.
Ko Thein Naing would pick me up occasionally to visit Saya U Tin Maung Nyunt.
Saya and I used to exchange books (dhamma and general).
He told me to keep the ones that I want.
He bought books. He got books when his dhamma friend Saya U Soe Kaw (Mining) passed away. He got books when a monastery undergoing renovation gave away the old stuff.
Saya’s books include Ludu Dawlove Ah Mar, Theikpan Maung Wa, Tha Ka Doe, and Kyemon U Thaung.
Ludu Daw Ah Mar
She took part in the 1936 RU Student Strike.
Spouse : Ludu U Hla (Writer & Journalist)
Many journalists & writers worked at Ludu Newspaper founded by U Hla & Daw Ah Mar.
Saya gave me the book written by Ludu Daw Ah Mar about notable people from Mandalay.
Daw Oo Zun (founder of the first Lu Oh Yone လူအိုရုံ) and Kyar Ba Nyein (Boxing & Checkers) are some of the Mandalay Thu မန္တလေးသူ and Mandalay Thar မန္တလေးသား featured in the book.
Book by Ludu Daw Ah Mar
Theikpan Maung Wa
U Sein Tin was an early student who took Burmese Honors.
Became ICS.
Co-founded “Khit San Sar Pay” with U Thein Han (Zawgyi) & U Wun (Minthuwun).
Wrote a journal during his study at Oxford University and published a book.
Wrote semi-autobiographical accounts featuring Maung Lu Aye မောင်လူအေး and Maung Lu Hmwe မောင်လူမွှေး
His collection of “Wut Htu Saung Par ဝတ္ထုဆောင်းပါးာwas prescribed as a Burmese text for high school.
Saya gave me the book written a book by Theikpan Maung Wa about pets.
Theikpan Maung Wa succumbed as a victim of a robbery (gone wrong).
Memories
Health & Fitness
President of RIT Thaing
Member of RIT Saya Soccer Team
Hiking & some Mountaineering (before having medical problems)
Had operation
Social & Religious Activities
Volunteer for constructing the pagoda & monastery at Taung Pulu Kaba Aye (first in the SF Bay Area & later at Boulder Creek)
Member, Kappiya Karaka ကပ္ပိယကာရက
Supporter, Team that compiled & converted Mogok Sayadaw’s tapes into CD
Donated $500 to YTU Library Modernization project
Donation
Used to have monthly လဖက်ရည် နဲ့ စကားဝိုင်း with Saya Allen Htay (GBNF), U Ko Ko Aye (GBNF), Ko Thein Naing (Patrick) and me.
Visit by Saya U Soe Paing (EE, UCC). They spent over a month on an Ocean Liner to return home after studying in the USA.
Visit by U Soe Paing
Saya and U Sein Tun were roommates at Mandalay University in 1955. They met again at a Fundraiser in Newark Pavilion on June 22, 2025.
Received two Masters : one from RIT, another from Melbourne University
Spouse : Daw Gyn Yu — Myeik Thu & Culinary Expert
Ma Gyn Yu
Son (Min Yu Aung) & daughter (Hnin Yu Aung) — both successful
Taught at Rengsit University
Senior manager at a Refinery in Thailand
After retirement, spending time with his daughter and grandchildren in California, USA.
Activities
Writes with the pen name “Maung Yin Maung (Okkpo)”. Not sure if the name is inspired by the first Burmese novel.
Author & Poet.
Wrote about his sayas (High School & Uni)
Co-author of the “Collection of Poems” by five RIT poets headed by Saya U Moe Aung (Tekkatho Moe War). One poem is about his beloved sweetheart and later his spouse Ma Gyn Yu (ChE72).
Book of poemsPoet
Organizer, Poetic Art Series & Musical Video (O Bei Myat Saya)
Organizer for book donation to the ChE Library & Training Component of YTU Library Modernization Project.
Per U Aung Myaing’s request, Saya U Maung Maung (George, ChE66) organized a fund raiser of US 3000+ for supporting the Training Component of the YTU Modernization Project.
Library
Recorded with the U-70 members at a professional studio. He has posted some of them on Facebook.
He & Daw Gyn Yu have provided assistance to sayas and alumni visiting Bangkok especially for medical treatment.
With Bagyee
Provided materials (paint, paper) to Pon Tu expert Bagyee Myat Myo Myint
Facilitator, Myanmar Association of Chemical Engineers; Knowlege sharing; Financial aid for needy ChE
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) successfully sent Apollo-11 to land men on the moon and bring them safely back to the earth (as envisioned by JFK).
Apollo 11
Neil Armstrong — Civilian Commander; First man on the moon
Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin — Lunar Module Pilot; Second man on the moon
Michael Collins — Command Module Pilot
My Poem
The poem honoring the Apollo 11 Mission was published in the Guardian newspaper.
A copy of the poem was given to Mr. Hall (USIS), who forwarded it to NASA and the astronauts.
Updates
Neil Armstrong became a University Professor
For some time, Buzz Aldrin was depressed for not being the first to set foot on the Moon. He later competed in “Dancing with the Stars”.
Michael Collins reply to interviewers : “The mission needed three astronauts. I am 1/3 of the success.” He wrote a book.
Apollo 13 had a technical problem. The saga was recounted in a book and a movie.
Apollo 17 had a Scientist Astronaut.
A mini-history was published based on the interviews with Astronauts.
During our RIT days, he was a super energetic organizer and a prime mover. As a member of the Gold Flake Cigarette Family, he inherited business acumen and organization skills.
Co-founded “Set Hmu Thadizin Zin စက်မှုသတင်းစဉ်”. Typing and drawing on stencil paper were not easy, but he spent time crafting the stencils into the revered weekly Thadinzin.
Vice President, RIT Mechanical Engg Association. Co-founded Magazine for the Association.
Suggested to name the main gate as “U Lu Paw Gate ဦးလူပေါ ဂိတ်” after the famous cartoon character from “Burma Star”.
Organized mini-festivals for freshers and junior students.
Graduated in 1967 with Mechanical Engineering
Worked for Sittaung Paper Mill and PCIC.
Founded “Ya Tha Cho”.
Did not live long enough to see SPZPs, SDYF, RITAA, HMEE & Shwe YaDu.
Remembering U Win Thein
The following remembered his contributions well.
U Tin Maung Aye (M69) : Member of RIT Ah Nu Pyinnya Troupe, Member of RIT Annual Magazine & Co-worker at PCIC. He gave us two photos of U Win Thein (one at RIT, one at PCIC)
U Aung Min (M69) : Chair of 69er Health Care Fund & Organizer for the Class of 69
U Thein Swe (EP69, GBNF) : 3rd BE Luyechun & Organizer of EE69er Gatherings
U Maung Maung Kyi (Dip Ing, Wales, GBNF) : Co-worker at Sittaung Paper Mill & PCIC
Sayama Daw Tin Tin Myint (Emma, ChE70, Singapore) : Co-founder of Dana Sri Lanka, Minthamee, Organizer of Singapore Pon Chan Chan Group
U Wynn Htain Oo (M72) : Super Fund raiser for RIT-related activities including SPZPs, YTU Library Modernization Project; Patron of RITAA
U Win Thein Zaw (Wai Lu) wrote : နာမည်ချင်းတူ၍သိခြင်း။ ကျောင်းသားချင်း Tuition ပေးခြင်း။ စစ်တောင်းစက္ကူစက်အုပ်စုဖြစ်ခြင်း။ မန္တလေးကုန်စည်ဒိုင်သို့ဆရာဦးလင်းနှင့်ရောက်လာခြင်း။ နေမကောင်းစဉ်ရန်ကုန်အိမ်တွင်တွေ့လိုက်ရခြင်းများကိုသတိရလျက်ပါကိုဝင်းသိန်းရေ
Updates
Mechanical Newsletters for 1968-69 to 1973-74 were scanned and archived in a CD by U Kyaw Thein and Daw Than Than Mu (1974 batch)
In the 1961 – 62 Academic Year, the Faculty of Engineering of Rangoon University moved to the Gyogone Campus.
It was named Burma Institute of Technology (BIT).
Sayas & Sayamas
U Yone Mo served as Dean.
U Sein Hla served as Registrar.
Newly minted sayas & sayamas include U Aung Soe (C), U Maung Maung Win (M), Daw Tin Tin Ohn (T) & Daw Julie Han
Matriculation & HSF
In 1961, the last Matric & High School Final exam took place. Those who pass the exam could attend the University.
In 1962, there were separate exams for Matric & HSF. Those who pass HSF had to take the Matric exam in order to attend the University.
2nd SEAP Games
RU athletes in 2nd SEAP Games
In December 1961, Burma hosted the 2nd South East Asian Peninsular Games.
Burma placed First (according to the Tally of Medals) in the Games. Burma was dominant in Track & Field, Swimming & Diving (to name a few).
About 20 students Rangoon University represented Burma in the Games. Several won Gold Medals : Tun Mra (4 x 100 meters relay), Soe Mra (Pole Vault), Kyaw Han (Volleyball), Richard Yu Khin (Yachting).
Ko Richard (GBNF) provided the group photo. He also wrote about the swimming training with Ko Tin Maung Ni under a Japanese coach.
Met Ko Tun Mra, Ko Khin Maung Latt & Ko Tin Myint (GBNF) at the RUBC/YUBC Annual Regatta in December 2019. Ko Tun Mra mentioned that he, Ko Kyaw Mra (GBNF), Ko Soe Mra & Ko Tun Naung represented Burma in the first SEAP Games held in Bangkok in 1959.
1962
Coup d’etat
On March 2, 1962, a 17-member Revolutionary Council staged a Coup d’etat. Sao Shwe Thaik’s son was killed.
Mahn Win Maung (President), U Nu (Prime Minister), U Myint Thein (Chief Justice), several high ranking officers & Sawbwas were imprisoned.
U Myint Thein was among the first to be detained and the last to be released. He was given only a part day off to attend the last journey of his spouse Daw Phwa Hmi (pioneer Burmese female barrister).
Sama Duwa Sinwa Naung had been selected to succeed Mahn Win Maung as the President, but the Coup ended the democratic parliamentary system.
Sama Duwa Sin Wa Naung
HSF Exam
The HSF exam results for Rangoon Division was annulled claiming a leakage of exam questions.
The students had to retake the HSF exam in August, 1962.
Dark Days in July
There were two Dark Days.
Student protesters faced indiscriminate shooting on July 7, 1962. The newspapers & Myanmar Ah Than said that there were 17 victims.
Ko Aung Khin who was killed by a stray bullet on his way back from RUBC to his home in Windermere Road was listed as the 17th casualty.
On July 8, 1962, the revered RU Student Union Building was demolished.
1963
Matric Exam
SPHS63 Scholarship Winners
Most exams were held in March. However, the Matric exam in 1963 was held in May.
St. Paul’s High School had five students in the Top Five, seven in the Top Ten, and ten in the Top Twenty.
Anniversary of 7th July
In July 1963, the first Anniversary of 7th July 1962 was celebrated with posters, pamphlets & magazines.
Some time later, the higher authorities announced the closure of most schools except the Faculty of Medicine & the Faculty of Engineering.
Rangoon University Boat Club
Dinner to celebrate the RUBC 40th Anniversary
Annual Regatta was canceled citing security reasons.
Sithu U Tin (President) decided not to cancel the Dinner commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Founding of RUBC by Sit Arthur Eggar (Law Professor).
1964
Scholarship for USSR & East Bloc
Soviet Union and East Bloc nations offered scholarships for undergraduates & graduates.
Some classmates (who were concerned about how long the schools will close) applied & were accepted.
Maung Maung Kyi studied Chemical Engineering (specializing in Pulp & Paper) at Dresden University, GDR.
New Education System
Shwe YaDu
Enacted in November 1964
The reorganization saw former Faculties as independent Institutes with their own Rector and Registrar. The remaining faculties of Rangoon University became Rangoon Arts & Science University (RASU).
Under the new Education system, BIT became Rangoon Institute of Technology (RIT). It had autonomy. U Yone Mo served as Rector. U Soe Thein (former student leader) served as Registrar.
Matriculates were admitted to the fresher classes at the Universities & Institutes using Intelligence Level Aggregate (ILA).
The marks for each subject were converted to an ILA score (1 – 20). Those who have a balanced score can have a higher ILA than someone who has high marks in most subjects but a low score in one subject.
There were name changes to the degrees offered, e.g B.E instead of B.Sc.(Engg)
Majors were introduced.
LL.B was offered.
Luyechun
The program was initiated in the Summer of 1964.
Outstanding students from middle school and high school was chosen as Luyechun. They were sent to the Ngapali Luyechun Camp.
Oke Soe Kha (MEHS), Win Aung (TTC) and Ma Pwint Than (Loikaw) were some High School Luyechuns.
1965
Nationalization
On April 1, 1965 private schools were nationalized.
St. Paul’s High School (SPHS) became No. 6 Botathaung State High School.
Methodist English High School (MEHS) became No. 1 Dagon State High School.
Luyechun Camps
Inlay Luyechun
The Luyechun program was extended to students of Universities & Institutes in the summer of 1965.
I was selected as RIT Luyechun along with Ko Sein Shwe, Ma Khin Than Myint Tin, and Ko Zaw Min. We were sent to the newly opened Inlay Khaung Daing Camp was added.
The Rangoon Combined Camp was the meeting point for those from Ngapali Camp and Inlay Camp.
Dr. Nyunt Wai wrote : I’m no painter or a poet. Just occasional excursions to these fields. And I’m not a visiting Professor. Had to apply for this job in Malaysia just like any other expatriate from India or Bangladesh. So I’m no 3 “P”s. This reminds me of “No 3 P policy” of the now extinct Yahoo group Alumni-Myanmar-medical-institutes founded by Saya Johnny Thane Oke Kyaw-Myint, which served well as a lively forum for us until the advent of Facebook.
Dr. Thane Oke Kyaw Myint wrote : Yes AMIM was a tight small group of us. Those who became friends then remain now as close friends. On FB, there is short attention as well as being bombarded by posts that we have no interest in.
In our younger days, tears would not fall easily even when one is forsaken by a lover.
Later, even when one’s parents passed away (especially untimely), one sensed grief and might shed a few tears.
A few years back (in April, 2013) we told the workers (masons, carpenters, painters …) not to bring their lunch boxes the following day, since we would be offering requisites (robes, medicine, Nawakama, Soon) and that they would have Dan Bauk (Birayani).
The next day, the workers brought their lunch boxes as usual.
Asked “Why?”
They replied, “We want to take back Dan Bauk to feed our children, who have never eaten such delicacy.”
My heart ached (thinking of the hard lives of the workers and their families).
Tears were ready to roll down. (There were Tears of Sorrow followed by Tears of Joy – appreciating the metta and cetana of parents.)
Note for the revised article: Should we substitute Dan Bauk with Two Eggs?
Editor’s Notes
Due to the pandemic, the former Rice Bowl of Asia is facing food shortage.
Due to misdirected policies, the purchasing power of Burmese Currency has declined.
Thanks to Ko Htoo and Ko Hta, many starving families have temporary relief in the form of Food Coupons (e.g by Mg Mar Ga, Shwe Zin Ma and their supporters).
I earlier translated Saya’s article about the K1000 (gratitude gift) by his mother-in-law to purchase a bowl of Khauk Swe.
Feedback
Saya U Moe Aung wrote :
Dear Ko Hla Min
As a matter of fact, I really cherished the article you’ve rendered into English recently. By the way, DanBauk is Briyani or, Birayani, as per your usage above?
