by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
Brothers, Sayas & Sayamas
Category: RIT
Engineering Schools in Burma
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SPHS Sayas
SPHS Staff High School Sayas Bro Henry Peter Mr. George Chapman Mr. Tims Mr. Beatson Mr. Cecil D’Cruz U Nyunt Maung Mr. Johnny Myo U Aye U Kyaw Sein U San Thein U Nge U Kyaw Oo U Htwe U Pe Tin Bro Anthony -
Donors
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
Daw Myint Myint (C69)
Myint Myint - Co-founder of Myit Ma Kha Co. Ltd with spouse U Htein Win (M66, GBNF)
- Philanthropist : donations in memory of U Htein Win
- Major Donor of 69er Health Care Fund
Award from 69ers 
69er HCF - YTU Library Modernization
YTU Library - Swel Daw Yeik Foundation
SDYF - Hunger Eradication
- Selected religious and social organizations
အလှူ Donation of K 1111
- ဒေါ်မြင့်မြင့် Daw Myint Myint — K 1000 Lakhs (SDYF)
- ဒေါ်မြင့်မြင့် Daw Myint Myint — K 100 Lakhs (Starvation Eradication)
- ဦးတင့်ကြိုင် U Tint Kyaing — K 10 Lakhs
- မှော်ဆြာကြီး Hmaw Sayagyi — K 1 Lakh
——
* စုစုပေါင်း Total — K 1111 Lakhs
သာဓု၊ သာဓု၊ သာဓု၊
Sadhu, Sadhu, SadhuDonation for Swel Daw Yeik Foundation
သိန်း၁၀၀၀အလှု
Wynn Htain Oo’s post :
အကိုဦးထိန်၀င်း(Mech66)ရဲ့အသက်၈၁နှစ်ပြည့်တဲ့ဒိီနေ့မှာမွေးနေ့အလှုအဖြစ်ဇနီးဖြစ်သူအမဒေါ်မြင့်မြင့်(civil69)မှစွယ်တော်ရိပ်ဖောင်ဒေးရှင်းသို့သိန်းတစ်ထောင်လှုဒါန်းပါတယ်
SDYF အတိုးများများရမှဆရာတွေကိုပိုမိုအကျိုးပြုနိုင်မှာဖြစ်လို့အရင်းတိုးပွားဖို့ဒီလောက်ပမာဏလှုတဲ့အမကိုစွယ်တောိရိပ်ကိုယ်စားအထူးကျေးဇူးတင်ရပါတယ်
ဒိနေ့အခန်းအနားကိုမောင်မာဃနဲ့အတူလက်လှမ်းမီရာကိုစိုးမြင့်၊ကိုစန်းကြူ၊ကိုတင့်ကြိုင်၊ကိုတင်ဦး၊နန်းခင်နွဲ့နဲ့ကိုအောင်ခိုင်တို့ကစွယ်တော်ရိပ်ကိုယ်စားလက်ခံယူခဲ့ပါတယ်
ကိုစိုးမြင့်ကစွယ်တော်ရိပ်ကိုယ်စားကျေးဇူးတင်စကားပြောကြားခဲ့ပါတယ်
အမတို့စေတနာထက်သန်စွာလှုသလိုထိရောက်စွာသုံးစွဲပါ့မယ်
အမလဲသက်ရှည်ကျန်းမာလိုရာပြည့်ပါစေ
Donation for Eradication of Starvation
by Daw Myint Myint
Myint Myint 8 Dr. Win Thein (C58, GBNF)
Dr. Win Thein Dr. Myo Khin & Daw Mya Nwe
Dr. Myo Khin & Daw Mya Nwe Benny Tan
Benny Tan U Maung Maung Lay & Daw Khin Nyunt Yi
U Maung Maung Lay & Daw Khin Nyunt Yi -
Association of Engineers in Burma after World War
by Hla Min, U Tin U & U Ba Than
Update : Apr 2026
History of Myanmar Engineering Education
- There were interviews for the HMEE-2012 project.
- The account about the Association of Engineers in Burma after World War was told by Saya U Tin U and recorded by Saya U Ba Than.
- The Association was re-instituted about 1955-56.
- President : Sayagyi U Ba Hli (Dean of Engineering, University of Rangoon)
- Honorary Secretary : Saya U Soon Sein (Professor, Mining)
- Honorary Treasurer : Saya U Tin U (Part time Lecturer, Civil)
U Tin U
U Tin U - Matriculated from St. John’s Dio in 1946.
- Attended Rangoon University before going for studies in the USA.
- Captain & Gold of Rangoon University Boat Club in 1948.
Represented RUBC in the Independence Day Regatta at Kandawgyi in 1948 along with Dr. Pe Nyun, Dr. Pe Thein and Khin Maung Wint (Bobby). - Received BCSE from the University of Oregon and MCSE from Yale University.
- Upon his return to Burma, he worked in the industry and taught part-time at the Civil Engineering department.
- Past Captain of Rangoon Golf Club
- Oldest & Most Senior Past Captain of RUBC
- Retired as Advisor of PWD Group.
U Ba Than
U Ba Than - 1947 : Matriculated from St. John’s Dio and won Collegiate Scholarship.
- 1949 : Gold Medal for scoring highest marks in the Intermediate of Science exam
- RUBC Full Green
- Studied Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College, London University
- Joined Faculty of Engineering as Assistant Lecturer
- As a requirement for promotion, he did his Masters at Imperial College
- Retired as Professor of Mechanical Engineering
- Early supporter of HMEE-2012 project. Donated his photo albums. Requested U Thaw Kaung to allow U Soe Paing & team to access the archives of Rangoon University Central Library.
- Before the pandemic, he invited former colleagues and students to his Birthday Soon Kyaw at Yaw Sayadaw’s Monastery.
- He donated back all of the Garawa Money to various social and religious associations.
- He is now GBNF.
Updates
- HMEE book was published in December 2012. Copies of the book were donated to Universities’ Central Library and YTU Library.
- U Tin U lost his spouse Dr. Daw Khin Kyi Nyunt in November 2019, his elder son Dr. Peter Khin Tun in April 2020 and his son-in-law U Tin Tun in May 2030. He will celebrate his 96th birthday on August 3, 2025.
- U Ba Than passed away after his 94th birthday in 2024.
Posts
- Associations
- HMEE
- Interviews
- Sayas
-
69er Grads Reunion in 1999
by Tint Lwin & Hla Min
Update : Apr 2026
69ers
- Most 69ers matriculated in 1963
- Attended last ever I.Sc (A)
- Admitted to first ever 2nd BE in November 1964
- Graduated in 1969
1969
EE69ers
EE69ers in 1969 69ers Reunion in 1999
30th Anniversary
The 1969 RIT Graduates Reunion was held in Rangoon/Yangon, Burma/Myanmar on Saturday, 20 February 1999 at Sait-Teng-Kya Restaurant near Kandawgyi lake.
Idea
The idea was mooted three years ago when a few of us were having dinner together and thought of having a gathering in 1999. After that most of us have forgotten about the idea until around the end of November 1998 when a group of our friends led by Ko Yee Pinn (Tavoy), Ko Myint Maung (aka “Bu”, RIT Volleyball selected), Ko Shwe, Ko Win Lwin, etc. decided to have a grand re-union in February 1999. They also decided that to be more meaningful we should invite our Sayas to pay them respect as well and, hence, it became the reunion cum Saya-ga-daw-pwe.
Attendees
On that very day the guest trickled in starting from about 4.00 p.m at the restaurant. The guests were required to fill in their names and contact numbers. The organizers promised to compile the name list and send to everybody who attended. By 6.00 p.m. about 30 Sayas and about 120 of our graduates were in the restaurant. The master-of-ceremony, Ko Win Lwin, announced the start of the ceremony.
Speeches
The programme started off with a few speeches, led by Nyi Hla Nge, representing the graduates in Rangoon, followed by Danny, representing the graduates overseas, Sai Aung Win, representing graduates outside Rangoon and last but not the least, by Saya U Kyin Soe, representing all the Sayas.
Paying respect
After that we gave respect to the Sayas. All the Sayas were seated on the stage and all of us sat on the floor. Some gifts were distributed to the Sayas followed by photo taking session and then the sumptuous dinner began.
Dinner & Entertainment
About 9 to 10 dishes were served but, most of us were too excited to notice what we were eating. Halfway through the dinner some of us went up the stage and sang some songs for entertainment. Even all the ladies, led by Alice and Naw Mu Mu Aye were on the stage as well. The crowd went wild.
Vow
The party ended at about 9.30 p.m. with some of the graduates not so sober. It was indeed a memorable gathering and we all vowed to meet again in December 2000 at place and date to be announced early next year. Three cheers to the organizers and those who have one way or the other help in making this event a great success.
1969 Updates
- How time flies.
- The Class of 69 celebrated the 30th anniversary reunion in 1999. The correspondence (Ko Daniel Tint Lwin, Ma Alice Saw Yu Tint, …) was partly responsible for the establishment of the “RIT Alumni International Newsletter” and the first ex-RIT web site.
- 40th Anniversary Reunion in 2009
2009 - Golden Jubilee of Admission in 2014
2014 - Golden Jubilee of Graduation in 2019
2019 - U Aung Min (M69) is Chair of 69er Health Care Fund. He and his team maintain the GBNF list.
GBNF - Several Octogenarians — U Tin Maung, Harry Tin Htut, Uzin Bobby, Uzin Aung Chaw, U Ngwe Tun, U Win Thein Zaw, U Ngwe Soe, Albert Kyaw Min, Mehm Aye Chan, U Kyaw Zin, Robert Win Boh, U Tin Aung Win …
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Maurice Chee
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
RIT Days
- Matriculated from MEHS in 1969.
- During his RIT days, he was known as Hla Myint Thein.
- Per advice from his paternal uncle Saya U Win Kyaing, he took Mechanical Engineering.
- Graduated in 1975.
Singapore & USA
Worked in Singapore before moving to USA.
Activities
- Founding member of RIT Alumni International, which organized the First RIT Grand Reunion and SPZP.
- Wore multiple hats at SPZP-2000
- Co-Chair of the Working Committee (with Benny Tan)
- Financial Controller
- Logistics Chief
- Publisher of commemorative issue of RIT Alumni Newsletter
- Past President of BAPS. During his tenure, he used his culinary skills to host lunch meetings. His ancestors ran a top rated restaurant. He learned the recipe for Dan Bauk from his father, and has improved it. He would use different meat for his Dan Bauk.
- Founding member & Past VP of NorCal RIT Alumni Association
- Gave a seminar (e.g. on PE) at Mechanical Engineering Department, YTU
- Donated books. Helped others (Daw Mu Mu Kin & Victor Wong) to donate books to YTU
- With the help of some YTU sayas, he helped find eligible recipients for the scholarship offered by Daw Mu Mu Kin.
Mg Mar Ga wrote:
တကယ်အားကိုးရတဲ့ကျောင်းတော်သားပါ
Updates
- Lost his father in September 2015
- Lost his mother-in-law in September 2019
Memories
SF Bay Area Alumni
- Meetings & Gatherings at Benny’s house
- Welcome Sayas & Alumni to the SF Bay Area
SF Bay Area Alumni 
Gathering at Benny’s house 
Gathering 2 
Gathering 3 
Gathering 4 SPZP-2000
- Co-Chair, Working Committee
- Several Subcommittees
SPZP-2000 M75
- Reunion & fundraiser in Yangon
M75 Saya U Ba Than
- Paid respect to Saya at Winner Inn
With Saya U Ba Than Reunion of SPZP Organizers
- KMZ visiting from Washington State
- Benny enjoying retirement after three successful careers
Sea Food Restaurant SF Bay Area Soon Kwyay
- Hayward Kyaung (picture)
- Also, Half Moon Bay Kyaung (for Maurice’s retirement, Kuto dana for Maurice’s dad)
Soon Kyway Retirees’ Lunch Gathering
- Selected restaurants & malls
Posts
- BAPS
- NorCal RITAA
- RIT Alumni International
- SF Bay Area Alumni
- SPZP
-
Han Sein
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
Ah Pho Gyi အဖိုးကြီး
Han Sein 1 - Graduated with Civil Engineering in 1969
- Excellent athletic and social skills
- Prisoner of Conscience
- Now GBNF
RIT Selected
RIT Crosslake Swimmers - Swimming
- Water Polo
- Diving
- Basketball
Tone Kyaw တုံးကျော်
- When 69ers compiled the Contact List in 1999, he was inadvertently listed as GBNF. The compilers were unaware that he had been sentenced by a Kangaroo Court to 20 years.
- He was released after 17 years, but he lost his family.
Did not lose heart စိတ်ဓာတ်မကျ
- Active in 69er Gatherings as a photographer
- Happy testing Special Effects on his camera
Photographer - Leader in Latha Township
Latha Ah Pho Gyi Byadi & Marana ဗျာဓိ မရဏ
- Covid partly caused his demise.
Condolences
Tin Aung Win wrote
We miss you, Mr. Photographer.
David Myint Thein wrote
Gone But Not Forgotten, may his soul rest in peace !
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Pu Zaw Pwe
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
PZP
Pu Zaw Pwe is a Noble Tradition that is practiced in Burma.
Thet Kyee PZP is for paying respect to the Elders. The age requirements vary.
Saya PZP is for paying respect to the sayas and sayamas. Some use the term Acariya PZP.
Thet Kyee PZP
In some places, a Senior Day is held. Transportation, Food, Entertainment and Photo-shoot are provided for Old people of all races and creeds.
Thet Kyee PZP may be held in conjunction with a Festival, e.g Thingyan or Thadinkyut. Buddhists may also pay respect physically to the Elders.
MES organized Thet Kyee PZP for Senior Engineers and Architects.
The All-Mechanical Gathering also had a program to pay respect to Thet Kyee Mechanical Engineers.
Acariya PZP
Examples :
Combined 1st BE Intake of 64 and 65
M72 (and some other Disciplines)
ICST/UCSY
Saya PZP
RIT Alumni International hosted the First RIT Grand Reunion and SPZP in San Francisco, California in October 2000. The term SPZP was chosen over Saya Ga Dawt Pwe so that Alumni of different Faith can pay back the Metta and Cetana of their mentors. I am honored to be a Core Organizer of SPZP-2000. I wrote the poem “SAYA PU ZAW PWE”. It was published in the RIT website and the Commemorative Issue of the RIT Alumni Newsletter for SPZP-2000.
Singapore hosted SPZP-2002, SPZP-2007 and SPZP-2010. Saya U Moe Aung (Tekkatho Moe War) and team published Commemorative Issue of Swel Daw Yeik Sar Saung for the SPZPs. My poem was reprinted on the Back Cover of SDYSS-2002. I wrote a poem “SWE DAW YEIK” for SDYSS-2007. I wrote an article “EE Sayas : A Sad and Short Clip” for SDYSS-2010.
Yangon hosted SPZP-2004, SPZP-2012 and SPZP-2016. Commemorative Issue of Swel Daw Yeik Magazine was published for SPZP-2012 and SPZP-2016. U Saw Lin (GBNF) was Chief Editor of SDYM-2012. Saya U Moe Aung was Chief Editor of SPZP-2016. Several Distinguished Authors (e.g Ma Sandar, Maung Sein Win — Padeegone, N Jar Thaing, Aw Pi Kye) also served as Editors.
Due to the pandemic, SPZP-2020 was canceled.
Some of the Organizers and Volunteers of the SPZPs are GBNF. They include Saya Allen Htay, Ko Saw Lin, Ko Aung Moung, Ko Than Sin Myint and Ko Robin.
Several Sayas are GBNF. They include U Ba Toke, H Num Kok, U Soe Khaw, U Khin Aung Kyi, U Thit, Dr. Mg Mg Win, S Arya, S Kyaw Aye, U Soe Lwin.
Sayas U Ba Than, U Aung Khin, Dr. Aung Gyi and U Min Win are 90+ years young. Many of our sayas are 80+ years young.
We hope to see SPZPs in the not so distant future (after the Calamities have ended).
-
Contributing Editor
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
RIT Alumni Newsletter
- In April 1999, I started sharing news of selected Alumni and Gatherings via e-mail.
- It was called RIT Alumni (Abroad) Newsletter.
- Several readers suggested a more inclusive name : RIT Alumni International Newsletter.
Special Issue for
SPZP-2000
Page 1 of Special Issue - In October 2000, the First RIT Alumni Reunion & Saya Pu Zaw Pwe (SPZP-2000) was held in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- We published a Special Issue of RIT Alumni Newsletter for SPZP-2000.
Editors
- I was the Chief Editor. Saya U Thein Aung (Met72) and Henry Lim (U Aung Myint) were Editors.
- I wrote “SAYA PU ZAW PWE” poem and the Editorial.
Authors authors
- Saya Dr. Freddie Ba Hli (GBNF)
- Saya U Aung Khin
- Saya Allen Htay (C58, GBNF)
- Saya Dr. Nyo Win (M65)
- Saya U Myo Win (M/Ag65, GBNF)
- Saya Dr. Koung Nyunt (A67, GBNF)
- U Hla Min (EC69)
- Benny Tan (M70)
- Saya U Thein Aung (Met72)
- Dr. Myint Thein (M73)
- Maurice Chee (M75)
- U Khin Maung Zaw (EC76)
Contents
Page 2 of Special Issue 
Page 3 of Special Issue 
Page 4 of Special Issue 
Page 5 of Special Issue 
Page 6 of Special Issue 
Page 7 of Special Issue 
Page 8 of Special Issue 
Page 9 of Special Issue 
Page 10 of Special Issue 
Page 11 of Special Issue 
Page 12 of Special Issue 
Page 13 of Special Issue 
Page 14 of Special Issue 
Page 15 of Special Issue 
Page 16 of Special Issue Archives
U Khin Maung Zaw archived the early newsletters in ex-rit org website.
U Wunna Ko Ko archived the later newsletters in RitAlumniInfo website.
Both websites are no longer active.
Contributing Editor
I volunteered as a Contributing Editor for the following newsletters
- RIT English Association Newsletter
- BAPS (Burmese American Professional Society) Newsletter
- Dhammananda Newsletter published by TBSA (Theravada Buddhist Society of America)
-
Senior alumni and sayas
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
Class of 48 and 49
For HMEE-2012 project, U Myo Myint (EC67, RUBC Gold) submitted several photos including the “Reunion of the Class of 48 and 49” photo. The class included
- U Boon Pin
Graduated with Mech/Elect combined major
Retired Deputy Chief Engineer, Burma Railways
Father of Ko “Robert” San Lin, EC 73) - U Soe Aung
Chief Engineer, PWD
Father of Daw “Janet” Thynn Thynn Khaing, EP 70) - U Po Han
Deputy Minister
Father of Saya U Khin Aung Han - U Min Han
Father of U Nyein Min (C79) - U Gym Kho
Uncle of U Myo Myint, EC 67)
Early Sayas
Many are GBNF (Gone But Not Forgotten)
- U Kyaw Tun is a saya of our sayas.
He started teaching Electrical Engineering at BOC College.
Father of Dr. Elizabeth Kyaw Tun (Daw Tin Nu, English) and Daw Dorothy Kyaw Tun
Saya jokingly said that his son-in-laws must be doctors. Ko Tin Aung Win recounted in one of the “Countdown to the Reunion” how he became known as Dr. Tin Aung Win. - C. Ping Lee taught EE at BOC College.
He transferred as Director of Technical and Vocational Training.
Dr. Win Aung (M62) wrote an article in memory of his father. - H Num Kok taught Civil Engineering at BOC College.
President of RIT Track and Field Association
Line Judge at RUBC Regattas
Elder brother of H Num Fatt (EE60) and H Num Pon (Myint Lwin, C61) - U Soe Khaw was Head and Part-time Lecturer of Mining at BOC College.
Moved to Thailand and USA. - U Soon Sein took over as full-time saya and Head of Mining department.
Moved to USA
- U Ba Hli
First native Dean of Engineering
Proposed the “Twinning Program” between RU and prestigious universities in the USA
Dr. Freddie Ba Hli wrote an article in memory of his father. - U Yone Mo
First Rector of RIT
Father of Kyaw Moe (M72, GBNF) - Dr. Aung Gyi
Rector
Moved to Canada
Gave a key note speech at SPZP-2000 - U Khin Aung Kyi
Rector
At SPZP-2000, he paid physical respect to his sayas: Saya H Num Kok and Saya U Ba Toke. - U Maung Maung Than
Rector
Chair, RIT Sports Council
- U Tin U attended Rangoon University in 1946. He is a Past Captain and Gold of Rangoon University Boat Club. He studied BSCE at Oregon State University and MSCE at Yale University. He taught part-time at the Civil Engineering Department, U Tin U (C) gave an interview to Saya U Soe Paing (EE, UCC) and U Htin Myaing (A66) for the HMEE-2012 project.
- Dr. Freddie Ba Hli (retired Adviser of National Planning, retired Director General of UBARI) taught part-time at EE department and also served as external examiner at UCC. He wrote an article about his father in the commemorative issue of “RIT Alumni International Newsletter” for SPZP 2000.
- U Min Wun did his BSCE at MIT along with Sayagyi Dr. Aung Gyi. He thanked Saya Dr. Freddie Ba Hli (ScD) for helping and encouraging them during their stay at MIT. He did his MS at Cornell University and specialized in Photogrammetry. His interests also included Western and Eastern astronomy and astrology. He served as Adviser on the “Myanmar Pyeikkadein Ah Phwe”. He was an early contributor to the newsletter updates.
- Dr. Khin Maung Swe (Tekkatho Maung Thin Char) published a book on the life/journey of Sayagyi U Ba Toke (retired Rector of MASU, retired Professor of Mathematics at RIT). It has a section about Sayagyi missing the March exam due to his participation in a student strike camp and passing all the subjects in the supplementary/compartmental examination in June/July. Since the stipends/scholarships were considered only for those who passed the March exam, Sayagyi decided to forgo his dream of becoming an engineer and instead pursue an Honors program in Mathematics. Sayagyi is a “Phwa Bet Taw” of Rangoon University Act (1920) and the first RU Student Strike (1920).
- U Aung Hla (Maths), his spouse (Daw May Than), and his son (Ko Mya Than) are all talented musicians. Sayagyi also annotated Burmese music.
- U Kar (Maths), father of Saya Dr. Tin Maung (Maths, UCC/ICST, GBNF), served as Minister of Education in the Caretaker Government.
- U Hla Maung (Burmese) taught Abhidhamma in his spare time. Several of the courses were held at the premises of Daw Khin Than Nwe’s parents. Saya served as member of the “Myanmar Sar Commission” and as “Naing gan daw kaung si win”.
Notes
- Several pioneer engineers (e.g. Saygyi U Kyaw Tun, EE) studied at UK for associate and full membership of the organizations (e.g. AMIEE). Some did their B.Sc. and/or Special Honors (which is a requisite for entering the Masters program).
- Dr. Yan Naing Lwin (WIU) had a copy of the Burmese/Myanmar state scholars studying in the US universities and institutes around ’54 – ’55. The list was published in a very early update and includes Saya U Sein Hlaing (EE) and Saya U Tin Swe (EE).
- U Boon Pin
HlaMin 