Category: Anniversaries

by Hla Min

Updated : May 2026

Events

Many events are covered in my posts & Newsletter Updates.

The following are some highlights for 1963 – 2025.

• Spent five years studying at RIT.
• Have spent 26 years paying back to my alma mater and my mentors.
• Thanks to my family members for their support.

1963

Matric Exam

• Took Matric Only exam in May
• Stood 7th in the whole of Burma. Honored at a ceremony at St. Paul’s High School.

• Won the Collegiate Scholarship of 75 kyats a month

• OPA invited us to the Annual Dinner on June 30.

• A newspaper clipping describing the Dinner is shown below. From R to L : Khin Maung U, Min Oo, Myo San, Nyunt Wai, Thein Wai, me & Maung Maung Kyi

• SPHS had five in the Top Five, seven in the Top Ten and ten in the Top Twenty in the Matric exam of 1963. Myo San (Freddie, 3rd), Maung Maung Kyi (11th) and Aung Thu Yein (13th) are now GBNF.
• All our SPHS teachers except Saya Beatson (Physics, Boy Scout) are GBNF. Saya became a monk.

Inter A

• Attended the last ever I.Sc.(A) classes at Leik Khone.

Rowing

• Joined Rangoon University Boat Club with fellow Paulians Maung Maung Kyi (GBNF), Kyaw Wynn and Willie Soe Maung (GBNF). Our crew was Runners up for the Senior Novices. We were awarded Full Green.
• Citing Security Concerns, the RUBC 40th Anniversary Regatta was canceled. Following the 7th July Anniversary protests, the University courses except Medicine & Engineering were suspended. The hostel students were ordered to return to their homes.
• Sithu U Tin (President, GBNF) decided not to cancel the RUBC 40th Anniversary Dinner at Orient Hotel in Kandawgyi. Several members are now GBNF.

1964 – 1969

• The I.Sc(A) exam was held at the High Schools.

RIT

• Attended first ever 2nd BE class at Rangoon Institute of Technology in November 1964.
• I was admitted as the Top student based on the I.Sc(A) exam marks.

Luyechun

• Selected Luyechun in 2nd BE. Attended the Inlay Khaung Daing Camp in the summer of 1965 along with Ko Sein Shwe, Ma Khin Than Myint Tin and Ko Zaw Min.
• The Luyechun program was started in the summer of 1964 with students from 7th to 10th Standards. In 1965, the program also included students from Universities & Institutes.
• Some Luyechuns — Kyaw Sein Koe (IM1), Khin Aye Than (Chemistry), Tun Naung (Dental), Than Sit (Sagaing) and Aung Kyaw Nyunt (Myingyan) — are now GBNF.

Associations

• Served as Joint Secretary, Secretary & Magazine Committee member of the RIT EE Association

• Served as the last ever officially elected Treasurer and Vice Captain of Rangoon University Boat Club. The higher authorities abolished the Bye laws and prevented me from becoming RUBC Captain.

Writing

• Started free lance writing (article, poem, translation …)
• Published the poem “Men on the Moon” in Guardian newspaper in July 1969. USIA sent a copy of the poem to NASA and the astronauts.

Graduation

• Graduated with B.E (EC).
• Of the 13 classmates, 12 graduated. Kyaw Soe, Aung Thu Yein, Chit Tin & Oo Kyaw Hla are now GBNF.

1970 – 1998

Work

• Universities’ Computer Center (UCC) : Computer Engineer, Sr. Systems Programmer, Business Application Manager

• Department of Computer Science (DCS) : Senior Lecturer
• Institute of Computer Science and Technology (ICST) : Associate Professor
• Tech Companies in the Silicon Valley : Member, Senior Member & Principal Member of Technical Staff

Publications & Projects

• Articles & translations in Guardian, Working Peoples’ Daily (WPD), Forward Magazine, Veda ဝေဒ Magazine, and Pan ပန် Magazine.
• Assisted Saya Dr. Chit Swe’s projects including High School Mathematics, Children’s Treasury of Knowledge (CTK), Team of System Specialists (TOSS)
• Wrote Computer Science, Programming & Lecture guides and UCC manuals with Saya U Soe Paing and Saya U Aung Zaw (GBNF).

• Per request from U Myint Sein (Principal, BARB), I assigned Ko Win Latt and Ko Zaw Tun Veda projects and supervised them. Their programs are used by Veda sayas, students & practitioners.

1999

Newsletter

• Started “RIT Alumni International Newsletter”
• It started with the news and photos of some gatherings back in Burma. (a) 30th Anniversary of the Graduation of the Class of 69 — reported by Ko Daniel Tint Lwin and Ma Saw Yu Tint (Alice)
  (b) Mini-gathering with Sayagyi Dr. Aung Gyi and other sayas and senior alumni — reported by Saya U Soe Paing

2000

SPZP-2000

• First RIT Grand Reunion and SPZP in San Francisco, USA in October 2000
• Commemorative web pages (thanks to KMZ)
• Commemorative Issue of the RIT Alumni International Newsletter by me and team

• 64 Countdown to the Reunion posts
• 36 Post-Reunion posts

2002

SPZP-2002

• Second RIT Grand Reunion and SPZP in Singapore
• Commemorative Issue of “Swel Daw Yeik Sar Saung”
• by Saya U Moe Aung and team
• Reprinted my “SAYA PUZAW PWE” poem as Back Cover

2004

SPZP-2004

• Third RIT Grand Reunion and SPZP in Yangon
• Mild earthquake did not rattle the attendees

2006

Three Gatherings in Sydney

• Visited Sydney, Australia to attend three gatherings
• RIT Alumni Dinner organized by Saya U Hla Myint, Saya U Myo Win (GBNF) & team

• UCC Alumni Gathering hosted by Saya U Aung Zaw (GBNF) and Daw Kyawt

• BOB Gathering at Olympic Park organized by Dr. Thann Naing (Bonnie Kywe)

2007

SPZP-2007

• Fourth RIT Grand Reunion and SPZP in Singapore
• Commemorative Issue of “Swel Daw Yeik Sar Saung” by Saya U Moe Aung and team
• Contributed a poem “SWE DAW YEIK”

UCC Gathering

• UCC gathering in Yangon hosted by Saya U Soe Paing & Daw Saw Yu Tint
• Ko Soe Myint & Ma Nge are now GBNF.

2010

SPZP-2010

• Fifth RIT Grand Reunion and SPZP in Singapore
• Commemorative Issue of “Swel Daw Yeik Sar Saung” by Saya U Moe Aung and team

• Contributed an article : Sad and short clip — EE sayas

2012

SPZP-2012

• Sixth RIT Grand Reunion and SPZP in Yangon
• True “Home Coming” in the Gyogone Campus
• Special publication : History of University Engineering Education in Burma/Myanmar by Saya U Aung Hla Tun & team (Ko Ohn Khine & I compiled the CD supplement for the book)
• Publication: Selected RIT Cartoons
• Commemorative Issue of “Swel Daw Yeik Magazine” by U Saw Lin & team
• Limited reprints of 23 RIT Annual Magazines

2013

SDYF

• Swel Daw Yeik Foundation
• Contributions for various projects
• Health care for the sayas and sayamas

Soon Kyway

• For Golden Jubilee
• Gifts from KMZ, Zaw Tun & Kyu Kyu

2014

RIT Shwe YaDu

• 50th Anniversary of the opening of RIT in 1964
• Planted 50 Swel Daw Bins
• Commemorative Issue of “Swel Daw Yeik Magazine” by Saya U Moe Aung & team (Contributed an article : “Recollections of a 69er”)

• Paved Shwe YaDu lane and set up Swel Daw Yeik benches
• Translated Saya U Moe Aung’s Shwe YaDu poem

2016

SPZP-2016

• RIT/YIT/YTU Alumni Association
• Seventh RIT Grand Reunion and SPZP in Yangon
• 10000+ attendees
• Free food and fun (all day and all night long)
• Platinum Jubilee for the Class of 69
• Hosted by some 69ers for their friends (in their sunset)

Appreciation Awards

• Soonkway at Half Moon Bay Monastery (organized by U Maurice Chee)

• Received Alumni Appreciation Award from alumni worldwide

• Annual Dinner by Northern California RIT Alumni Association

• Received plaque signed by Saya U Myat Htoo (Chair, BOD), U Kaung Kaung Oo (Gordon, President), and U Thaung Nyunt (Secretary)

Gatherings

• Attended SPZP-2016 and Platinum Jubilee of the Class of 69

2017

Post-SPZP

• Attended Post-SPZP2016 Gatherings

DTM

• Awards : Distinguished Toastmaster

2018

UCC & ICST

• Attended 5th Acariya Pu Zaw Pwe of ICST/UCSY
• Memories of UCC : 40+ posts
• Trivia : 2000+ posts
• Archived and revised posts in hlamin.com

2019

69er GJ

• Golden Jubilee of Graduation of the Class of 69

ILF

• Panelist, 5th Irrawaddy Literary Festival

2020

• PSA Tour in Jan 2020
• After announcement of pandemic in Feb 2020, many social activities were paused.

2021 – 2023

Visits

• Short visits (e.g Singapore, Malaysia)

NorCal RITAA

• Some social activities were resumed.

2024

Visits

• Short visits to Thailand and Laos
• Attended EE85 Reunion as Guest of Edward Saw (Yu Ket).

Celebrations

• NorCal RITAA celebrated Centennial of Engineering Education in Burma & 60th Anniversary of RIT
• Saya U Nyunt Htay, Mg Mar Ga & team organized the recording of video messages of some sayas & sayamas. They can be accessed from YouTube channel & website of NorCal RITAA.

2025 – 2026

• Still have good physical & mental health.
• Updating posts in my website
• Posts for RIT Updates
• Posts for Old Paulians
• Posts for Old Burma Group

Thanks

• My ancestors

• Family members
• သင်ဆရာ၊ မြင်ဆရာ၊ ကြားဆရာ
• Benefactors

by RIT Alumni

Updated : May 2026

• Dr. Soe Thein (C75) wrote :

ကျွန်တော် တို့ မမှီ လိုက်တဲ့ အင်ဂျင်နီယာ တွေနဲ့ ပါတ်သက် ခဲ့တဲ့လိပ်ခုံး BIT RIT အကြောင်း အရာ တွေကို နှစ်ပေါင်း ဆယ်စု များစွာ စံနစ် တကျ စဉ်ဆက် မပြတ် ရေးသား ပေးတဲ့ ရာသက်ပန် RIT သတင်း ပြန်ကြားရေး မှူး ဦးလှမင်း ကို အထူး ဂုဏ်ပြု အပ်ပါတယ်။

ဒီလို ထူးချွန် ​ပြောင် မြောက် တဲ့ သတင်း ပြန်ကြားရေး မှူး နောက် တယောက် ဘယ်တော့မှ ပေါ်ထွန်း နှိုင်တော့ မည် မဟုတ်ပါ။

Big big congratulations ပါ

ဦးလှမင်း

• Khin Aye Myint wrote :

Congrats to U Hla Min for his informative RIT, BIT history ..

• Aung Min wrote :

Junior များ

လက်ဆင့်ကမ်းကြလော့

• Aung Myaing wrote :

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

A hobby a day keeps the doldrums away making you healthy and happy.

• Zaw Winn wrote :

My Appreciations Dear Senior,

Your affection for our Alma Mater is unparalleled and will be in our memories for ever.

• Mg Mar Ga wrote :

အကို့ကြောင့်သာဒိလိုမှတ်တမ်းမှတ်ရာတွေအသေအချာကျန်ခဲ့တာပါအကို့ခြေရာနင်းနိုင်ဖို့နောက်တယောက်ထပ်ရှိဖို့မလွယ်ပါတကယ်ပြောတာပါမှတ်ညဏ်ရယ်စေတနာရယ်အချိန်ပေးနိုင်မှုရယ်ဆောင်ရွက်တတ်မှုဆိုတာသာမန်လူလုပ်နိုင်ခဲလွန်းလှတယ်RIT Archive လုပ်ဖို့အကိုတအားတိုက်တွန်းခဲ့တာမှတ်မိတယ်ကြိုးစားစခဲ့ပေမဲ့တကယ်ကအကိုလုပ်ပြီးသားထက်ရေှ့မတိုးနိုင်ခဲ့ တကယ်ကိုရင်ထဲကချီးကျူးပါရ စေကျန်းမာသက်ရှည်လိုရာပြည့်ပါစေအကို

• U Myo Myint wrote :

Mg Mar Ga

ဆရာ U Hla Min စုဆောင်းပြုစုမှတ်တမ်းတင်နေတဲ့‌အားထုတ်လုပ်ဆောင်ချက်များကို

ဦးဝင်းထိန်ဦးရဲ့မှတ်ချက်နဲ့ထပ်တူကျနော့်ရင်ထဲမှာလေးစားတန်ဖိုးထားချီးကျူးရပါကြောင်းနှင့်

ဆရာကိုယ်စိတ်နှစ်ပါးကျန်းမာ ချမ်းသာပါစေကြောင်း ထပ်ဆင့်ဆုတောင်းပါတယ်ခင်ဗျာ။

• Wai Lu wrote :

These are extraordinary records. Maybe superman @ genius @ techniques.

• San Lin wrote :

ပြီးခဲ့သမျှကို အရမ်းမှတ်မိသလို လုပ်လဲလုပ်နိုင်တဲ့ ဆရာဦးလှမင်း ကျန်းမာသက်ရှည်ပါစေ။

• U Hla Myint Rit wrote :

Thanks to all. VV Nice. Be mindful

Photos

by Hla Min

Updated : Apr 2026

• Some are unfortunate to lose one or both parents in their youth.
• Some are fortunate to have one or both parents in their 90’s and beyond.
• A few had a parent over 100.

Mother of Ivan Lee (M69)

Ivan is a Golden Sponsor for SPZP-2000 & SPZP-2007. He is an early supporter of the first RIT web site. He is a major donor for the 69er Health Care Fund.

He lost his father when he was young. His mother raised the children and also managed to stay healthy beyond the Century mark.

Ivan e-mailed us when his mother turned 100. It had the birthday card sent to his mother from the 43rd US President George W. Bush.

Ivan e-mailed again when his mother turned 101. It had the birthday card sent to his mother from the 44th US President Barack Obama.

We heard sad news from Ivan the following year. His mother passed away at the age of 102. She was alert until the final days. She played two hours of Mah Jong daily.

Let Oo Saya လက်ဦးဆရာ

I am fortunate to have parents who lived beyond 80, but not fortunate enough to have them around to see and appreciate my posts.

My beloved mother

She lost her mom a few days after her birth. She made up for her loss by giving her metta (unbounded love) and cetana to the children and grandchildren. She kept a list of all the birthdays and anniversaries, and would be usually the first to wish. Even though she had maids, she would get up early & prepare breakfast for us. She also supervised the homework of her children, nephews and nieces.

I paid homage to her in my Newsletter & Updates for SPZP-2000.

My beloved father

He was a youth when he was given only three months more to live by the then best doctors in Rangoon. He had a Near Death Experience. His younger brothers cried thinking that he had died.

My dad told his brothers : “I was walking happily along a bund when a holy man stopped me and said, “Young man, you have to do sasana work. Do not go beyond this point.” Sensing that I was reluctant to end my walk, the man pushed me.”

Luckily, an indigenous medicine man named “Ga Doke Saya Gyi” treated my dad and even parted some of his medical knowledge.

He built pagodas starting with Dat Paung Zon Aung Min Gaung Pagoda (ဓာတ်ပေါင်းစုံအောင်မင်းခေါင်စေတီ). His photo hangs in the Hall along with his grandparents who who bought the land where the pagoda was built.

He also helped renovate pagodas.

I paid homage to him in my Newsletter & Updates for SPZP-2000.

My parents

During my school days, they gave me 25 pyas as pocket money. They wanted to make sure that I study hard. They would give bonus prizes only when I excelled in the exams.

They provided us :

• Remington English typewriter
• Olympia Burmese typewriter

• Dictionaries
• Myanmar Swel Sone Kyan (Encyclopedia)
• Reader’s Digest Magazine & Books
• Student’s Companion
• A book for Idioms
• Grammar : Wren and Martin
• King’s English : Fowler & Fowler
• How and Why
• Fun with Mathematics
• Classics Illustrated
• Junior Classics Illustrated
• Bedin : Saya Maukဆရာမောက်
• Palmistry : Cheiro
• History : Second World War
• Sports equipment
• Bicycle
• Scooter
• Car

My beloved parents would have smiled to hear my grand daughter say, “Who’s your doctor? What happened?” after I returned from a clinic. She added, “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you. I love you.”

She must have inherited the loving kindness of her great grand parents.

She won the Super Reader and Scholastic Achievement Awards. She loves Swimming, Soccer, Basketball, Singing, Playing music, Dancing and Painting.

My grand son is athletic. He plays competitive Soccer. He loves Cycling, Kung Fu, Basketball, Swimming, Piano and Video Games. He is sociable.

Poem and Song

I would like to share a poem and a variant of a song that I learnt in my youth.

Father (Poem)

Be kind to your father
For when you were young
Who loved you as friendly as he
He caught the first accent
That fell from your tongue
And joined in the heavenly glee.

Be kind to your father
For now he is old
His hair intermingled with grey
His footsteps are feeble
Once fearless and bold
Your father is passing away.

The version that we learned at school use archaic words like Thee, Thou, Thy and Locks. I have replaced them by the current usage : You, You, Your and Hair.

Mother (Song)

M is for the mercy she possesses
O means only that she’s growing old
T is for her tender sweet caresses
H is for her heart of purest gold
E means every thing she’s done to save me
R means right and right she’ll always be

Put them all together
They spell MOTHER
A word that means a world to me.

M is for the million things she gave me
O means that I owe her all I owe
T is for the tears she shed to raise me
H is for the hands that touch and hold
E means every thing she taught me
R means rare and special she’ll always be

Put them all together
They spell MOTHER
A word that means a world to me.

In some countries, there is Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

For us, everyday is Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Parent’s Day.

Dear beloved parents, I’m sure you will be in the good abodes. I want to thank you for your unbounded love and for your belief “Every thing that’s worth doing is worth doing well”.

A1 Centurion

Posts

• Father’s Day
• Mother’s Day

by Hla Min

Updated : June 2025

1973

• U Hla Win (M)
• U Khin Maung Cho (M)
• Dr. Myint Thein (M)

• Dr. L Sein Myint (M)
• U Myo Myint (M)
• U Hla Win (M)
• U Aung Moung (M, GBNF)
• U San Lin (EC) & Daw Hla Myint (EC)

• U Htun Aung Kyaw (EC)
• U Kyi Aung (ChE)
• Dennis Mackey (C)
• George Peters (C)
• U Nyunt Htay (Met)

1974

• Dr. Htay Lwin Nyo (EP, GBNF)
• Sai Aung Thu Yein (EC, GBNF)
• U Myint Swe (EP)
• Daw San San Swe (EC)
• Daw Khin Swe Oo (EC)
• U Nay Win Maw (E)
• U Myo Thant (E)
• U Maung Maung Thant (M)
• U Sann Aung (M, GBNF)
• Charlie Than (M)

1975

• Maurice Chee (M)

• U Win Khaing (M, GBNF)
• U Than Po (M, GBNF)
• U Tin Myint (M, GBNF)
• U Khin Maung Win (M)
• U Ye Lin Oo (M)
• U Ohn Win (M)
• Daw Mar Mar Yee (M)

• U Mya Thwin (EP)
• U Sein Tin (EC)

1976

• U Khin Maung Zaw (EC)
• U Wynn Myint Aung (EC, GBNF)
• U Sein Myint (EC)
• U Thura Thant Zin (M)
• U Aye Tun (M)
• U Khin Maung Aye (M)

1980

• U Tin Myint (M)
• U Lu Aye (M)

1981

• U Tin Aung Win (C)

1983

• Gordon Kaung (Kaung Kaung Oo, M)
• U Kyaw Than Aung (M, GBNF)

• U Kyaw Myint (M)
• U Kyi Shane (M)
• Lillian Kaung (EC)
• U Tha Hlaing (EC)
• U Thaung Tin (EC)
• U Shein Soe Myint (EC, GBNF)
• U Thein Htut (EC)

1984

• U Ko Ko Zin (M)
• U Aung Myint Oo (EC)
• Daw Khin Khin Hla (C)

1985

• Saw Yu Ket (Edward, EC)
• U Tun Mra Gyaw (EC)
• U San Oo (EC)
• U Tin Tun (EC)

1986

• U Tin Maung Win (C)
• U Nyunt Than (M)
• U Thaung Nyunt (M)
• Daw Cho Cho Thwin (E)

1987

• U San Lin (M)
• Eng Shwe Ho (M)
• Andrew (M)

1992

• Nan Khin Nwe (M)
• Daw May Than Htay (M)

1993

• U Mg Mg Win (Mg Yit, EC)
• U Soe Min Oo (EC)

by Hla Min

Updated : June 2025

I founded the Newsletter in May 1999.

We published a commemorative issue of the Newsletter for RIT Alumni Reunion & Saya Pu Zaw Pwe in October 2000.

Newsletter for SPZP-2000

• Front cover has my poem “SAYA PU ZAW PWE”
• Back cover has a list of the SPZP-2000 Organizers
• 16 pages