HlaMin

Category: RIT

Engineering Schools in Burma

  • Tin Htut

    Tin Htut

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    Highlights

    U Tin Htut
    • Matriculated from SPHS in 1953.
    • Won Senior Novices at the RUBC Regatta in 1953.
    • Coxed the Old Paulian crew which won Senior Novices at the RUBC Regatta in 1954. The crew members : U Tun Shein (Willie Saing, Stroke), M Hla Min (Moosaji, No. 3), Dr. Than Nyunt (George, No. 2) and Sao Hso Holm (Sawbwa Lay, Box).
      He and three crew members later became RUBC Gold.
    • Served as Captain of RUBC.
      Due to heavy involvement in RUBC, he decided to take a sabbatical.
    RUBC Captain

    Engineering

    • Attended 1st Year Engineering at BOC College in 1955.
    • Graduated B.Sc (Mechanical Engineering), University of Rangoon in March 1960.
    • Joined the Faculty of Engineering, University of Rangoon (Leik-Khone) as Assistant Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering in May 1960.
    • Attended Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, W. Germany in 1961/62 as a state scholar.
    • Worked as a Manager in Rangoon Textile Mills Co. Ltd. from 1962 – 65.
    • Rejoined the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, RIT in September 1965.
    • Studied Engineering Production at the University of Birmingham, UK in 1968/69.
    • On return to RIT, lectured Industrial Management to 5th and Final Year students.

    USA

    • Immigrated to the USA in May 1978.
    • Worked in the Aircraft Division, Northrop Corporation, Hawthorne, CA in August 1978.
    • With Leave of Absence from Northrop, worked as UNIDO Project Management Adviser in Khartoum, Sudan in 1981/82.
    • Retired early from Northrop in September 1992.

    Family

    Wife: Irene

    Children: Saynne Tin Htut and Aung Aye Htut.

    Grand children : Three

    Editor’s Notes

    His parents were entrepreneurs in the Textile industry (e.g. Khit Ah Kyaik ခေတ်အကြိုက် Nylon), production & distribution of movies (e.g. Ah Myotha Yoke Shin, အမျိုူသားရုပ်ရှင် Carlton Cinema)

    Served as Captain of RUBC as a student, and later as a Saya Administrator.

    Organizer of RUBC Jubilee and Anniversary regattas.

    Despite having a bypass heart surgery, he was actively involved in BASES, which he co-founded with U Tin Htway (M59) and U Tun Tin (David, GBNF).

    Member of the Steering Committee for SPZP-2000.

    SPZP-2000

    Ccontributed not only to the Saya Pu Zaw Pwe fund, but also to the special fund for inviting Sayagyi U Ba Toke from Myanmar.

    Financial Controller for the 2015 RIT Alumni Reunion in Los Angeles

    Ma Irene was Maurice’s teacher in Methodist English High School. Saya was Maurice’s lecturer in the 5th B.E. “Industrial Management” course. All the skills learnt were used effectively by Maurice, Financial Controller for the “Reunion & Saya Pu Zaw Pwe” and aPublisher of the “RIT Alumni Newsletter” Special Issue.

    Donation

    Saya’s donations include

    • K10 Lakhs to Swel Daw Yeik Foundation
    • K100 to YTU Library Project
    • All Mechanical Gathering
    • RUBC Gathering
  • Memories of U Tin Htut

    Memories of U Tin Htut

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    Brief Bio

    • Alumnus of SPHS, RU Faculty of Engineering, Birmingham University & German University
    • Joined Mechanical Engineering Department as Assistant Lecturer after graduating in 1960
    • His parents needed help to run their business. He complied. Three family members — his father U Chit Maung, his eldest brother U Sein Tin and saya — were taken into custody for several months.
    • After completing his Waso at Insein, he rejoined Mechanical Engineering Department as Assistant Lecturer. New Sayas had to join as Instructors.
    • Taught Industrial Management. Earlier, the subject was taught by Visiting Lecturers from Faculty of Social Science & Institute of Economics.

    Rowing

    • Past Captain & Gold of RUBC
    • Won Senior Novices twice : as Rower and as Cox of the All Paulian Crew with Tun Shein (Willie), Than Nyun (George), M Hla Min (Moosajee) & Sao Hso Holm (Sawbwa Lay)
    • Served as Administrator of YUBC for several years

    USA

    • Joined Northrop and also helped several alumni to join the company
    • Took Sabbatical to work for UN
    • Founded BASES with U Tin Htway (M59) and U Tun Tin (David, GBNF). He is a Past President.
    • Financial Controller for 2015 RIT Alumni Reunion in Los Angeles.
    • Helped with SPZP-2000 held in San Francisco.
    • Came to SF Bay Area to attend RIT gatherings and to have family reunion with his sisters.
    • Hosted me at his new house. Took me to BASES Dinner and La Puente Monastery the following day (where there was a Soon Kwyay followed by Literary Talks).

    Donations

    • K100 lakhs to YTU Library Modernization Project
    • K10 lakhs to SDYF (Swel Daw Yeik Foundation)
    • Donated to All Mechanical Gathering

    Memories

    • SPZP-2000
    SPZP-2000
    • 2015 RIT Alumni Reunion in Los Angeles
    2015 Reunion in Los Angeles
    2015 Reunion in Los Angeles
    • Donations
    Donation
    U Tin Htut and U Wynn Htain Oo
    U Tin Htut
    • Singapore
    U Tin Htut, U Mg Mg Win, Dr. Tin Win & U Aung Myint
    U Tin Htut in Singapore
    U Tin Htut in Singapore
    • New Zealand
    U Tin Htut in NZ
    • SF Bay Area
    U Tin Htut in SF Bay Area
    • RUBC Golds
    RUBC Past Captains and/or Gold

    Posts

    • BASES
    • RIT Sayas
    • RUBC
    • SPZP
  • Dr. Aung Gyi

    Dr. Aung Gyi

    by Dr. Aung Gyi & Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    Former Rector, RIT

    DAG

    Nativity

    Born from my parents U Ba Pu and Daw Aye Kyi in Namtu, Northern Shan States, Burma.

    Education

    Matriculated in 1949 from Myoma High School in Rangoon.

    After passing the 1st year engineering, BOC College of Engineering, Rangoon University in 1952, went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Mass., USA as a State scholar to join the second year engineering classes there.

    Was in Dean’s list during the studies in MIT; and obtained B.S.(Civil Engineering) in 1955 and M.S.(Civil Engineering) in 1956.

    Work

    After working as a junior engineer in Tippetts- Abbett-MacCarthy- Stratton Engineers, New York and Green Engineering Co., Boston for a year, returned to Burma in 1957.

    Joined the Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Rangoon University as an Assistant Lecturer.

    Promoted to Lecturer and Head of the Department of Civil Engineering in 1958.

    Marriage

    Got married to Daw Mya Mya Mue in 1959. (Have a daughter and a son and two grand children from daughter who all live in Canada now.)

    Doctorate

    Went to the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on Colombo Plan Scholarship in 1963 for further studies. Obtained Ph.D (Civil Engineering) specializing in structural engineering in 1965 from the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

    Promotions

    Returned to Burma in 1965 and promoted to Professor and Head of Civil Engineering Department in 1966.

    Promoted to Rector of Rangoon Institute of Technology in 1971.

    UNESCO

    Left Burma to join UNESCO as Programme Specialist in Applied Sciences in 1977 in Unesco Regional Office in New Delhi, India.

    IDRC

    Migrated to Ottawa, Canada to join the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canadian Research funding Agency in Ottawa as an Associate Director in 1981.

    Was then assigned to IDRC Regional Office in Singapore as Principal Program Officer from 1989 to 1992.

    Was transferred to IDRC Regional Office in New Delhi as Principal Program Officer in 1992.

    Was promoted to Regional Representative for IDRC Regional Office in New Delhi in 1995.

    Retired from IDRC in June 1997 and now settled down in Nepean, Ontario, Canada with wife.

    I look forward to seeing you all soon.

    With Metta,
    Aung Gyi

    Updates (by Hla Min)

    Welcome dinner for SPZP-2000
    • U Thein Aung (Met72, Saya) was Associate Editor for the commemorative issue of RIT Alumni Newsletter for SPZP-2000. He compiled the biographies of the sayas and sayamas attending SPZP-2000. He also served as co-emcee.
    • Saya has four grandchildren.
    • I was a guest on two occasions (around SPZPs) hosted by Ko Wai Lwin in Yangon (a) one for Ma Ma Emma’s birthday (b) another for welcoming Sayagyi DAG and other sayas at U Nyan Tun U’s residence.
    • Met Saya during his trips to California
    Asian Heritage Museum
    • We spent a few nights at Ivan’s house. Saya & Ma Ma were also there to attend the RIT-UCC gathering hosted by Ivan
    NJ Gathering
    • Ko Ivan, Ko Fred, my spouse and I stayed at Saya’s house for two nights in 2015. Thanks.
    Saya’s house

  • Parody

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    I Love You Because (Parody by Hla Min)

    • Many years ago, I wrote a parody.
    • “I love you because” (sung by Jim Reeves) was a hit played by Burma Broadcasting Service (BBS).
    • I wrote a light version of the song.
    • I did not have a Home Minister at that time to edit or veto it.

    I love you because (Lyrics)

    I love you
    because you always stand dear
    every time I opened up the door
    You’re always there
    to help me eat my jam dear
    I love you more
    because you never snore.

    No matter
    When you’re sleeping or awake dear
    You’re pretty
    as the craters on the moon
    I love you
    every minute of the hour dear
    Because you said
    You’d cry
    beside my tomb

    I love you
    because my pocket’s lighter
    every time you shop
    around the town
    I love you
    because you’re a great fighter
    But you promised
    you would never
    knock me down

    Take These Chains (Parody by Hla Min)

    • “Take these chains” was a song that was played often by BBS.
    • Thamankyar Ko Myint (Mn70) sang a Burmese song using the tune.
    • I tried to parody the song.

    Take these chains (Lyrics)

    Take these chains from my legs and set me free
    And the rope that ties me to this tree
    If you really pity me
    let me drink a glass of Zee
    Take these chains from my legs and set me free

    I’m charged with murder of a tiny, little flea
    “Cruel” said the judge and he would not hear my plea.
    So, if you really pity me
    let me sip a cup of tea
    Take these chains from my legs and set me free

    Take this scarf from my eyes and let me see
    If your waist still measures twenty three
    When I’m free I’ll marry you
    Even barrel shape will do
    Take these chains from my legs and set me free

    Lost Neikban RIT (Parody by U Myat Htoo)

    U Myat Htoo
    Lost Neikban
    • U Myat Htoo wrote a parody on “Pyauk Sone Nay Thaw Neikban Bon” (the song by Sai Kham Leik and Sai Htee Saing).
    • Played the Ukelele and sang the song at the 2015 Alumni Reunion in Los Angeles, and at NorCal RITAA Annual Dinner.
  • Saw Lin (C71)

    Saw Lin (C71)

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    Highlights

    • Secretary, RIT Civil Engineering Association; Predecessors — U Hla Myint Thein (C69), U Myo Khin (C70); Successor — U Ko Ko Gyi (C72)
    Secretaries, RIT Civil Engineering Association
    • Graduated with Civil Engineering in 1971
    U & Mrs. Saw Lin
    • Retired MD, Kyay Ni project
    U Saw Lin & Dr. San Hla Aung

    SPZP-2012

    SPZP Meeting
    • Logistics
    • Security
    • Publications
    U Moe Aung and U Saw Lin
    • Chief Editor, Swel Daw Yeik Magazine
    Swel Daw Yeik Magazine Committee
    • Reprinted 23 RIT Annual Magazines
    • Hosted tour to selected sayas

    Reunion

    • Sayas
    • Alumni
    Civil Engineering Sayas and Alumni

    MES

    • VP
    • Editor & Publisher, Tech Magazine

    Memories

    • Gave me rides during my visit to Yangon in March & December 2012
    • Gave a welcome dinner at Feel restaurant for me and gave me an autographed copy of RIT Cartoons
    RIT Cartoons
    Welcome dinner

    Attendees : U Hla Min (EC69), U Ohn Khine (M70), Saya U Aung (C70), U Saw Lin (C71), Rosie Mai Khin Nyunt (ChE71), U Khin Maung Myint (ChE71)

    • Took me to SPZP meeting; Gave me dinner on the way back; Learned about his medical conditions & dietary restrictions

    Health

    U Saw Lin, Spouse, Brother, Daughter & Doctor
    • He had operations about a decade ago
    • After SPZP-2012 his health declined.
    • He was admitted to ICU a couple of times.
    • He passed away in 2014
    Obituary

    Posts

    • Civil Engineering
    • MES
    • Publications
    • SPZP

  • Belles

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    Female Engineering Students

    • In the old Education System, there were only a handful of female Engineering students
    • The first batch of five female students graduated in 1961.
      Four were from Textile : Tin Tin Ohn (Amy Thwin), Julie Han (later Dr.), Yin Yin Kyi and Mi Mi Lay. Pauline Reynolds was the first female Chemical Engineering graduate.
    Julie Han
    Pauline Reynolds
    • In 1962, Khin Than Nwe (Margaret, Tex) was the lone female engineering graduate.
    Khin Than Nwe
    • Ma Ni Ni Thwin, Ma Khin Thein Yi, Ma Tin Myint, Ma Pyi Aye, Ma Khin Khin Kyu, Nancy Hla Aung, Maywaddy Tun Tun, Ma Yi Yi Aung, Ma Mya Mya Than, Ma Nyunt Nyunt Zaw, Ma Cho are grads from 1963 – 68.
    Nancy & Yi Yi Aung
    • The new Education System saw more female students.
    • There were about 45 female students in the 1st BE intake in 1964, and about 30 female students in the 2nd BE intake in 1964. G-Hall accepted most female students.
    • There were more in the 1st BE intake in 1965.
    Archi

    Ushers at RIT Graduation

    Annotation : Daw Mae Khin Nyunt (Rosie, ChE71)
    Editor for “Swel Daw Yeik Magazine”
    Organizer for Combined 1st BE Intake of 64 and 65

    • We all served as ushers at the Graduation Dinner in late 1966.
    • Graduation took place at RIT as well as the Dinner, at “aw bar lan” area.
    Ushers

    Right to Left

    • Sandi Hlaing — Ch 66 intake
    • Mai Khin Nyunt (Rosie Gyi) — Ch 65 intake
    • Nila Mya Aung — M 64 intake
    • Jessie Htwe — M 66 intake
    • Annie Ba Htaw — Tex65 intake
    • Aye Aye Than (Pauk Pauk) Ch 66 intake (UK)
    • Tin Tin Myint (Emma Myint) — Ch 64 intake (Singapore)
    • Than Than Yi (GBNF) Tex 65 intake (my best friend who passed away in Sept 2013, USA)
    • Phyu Phyu Latt (Christine Latt) — Ar – 64 intake (Australia)
    • Min Thet Mon (Pamela Myo Min) — Ar -64 intake

    Tazaungdaing Festival

    Photo provided by Daw Tin Aye (C73).
    Initially took Mechanical Engineering and helped with “Set Hmu Thadin Zin” (founded by U Win Thein).
    Played Volley for Civil Engineering
    Volunteered for SPZP-2012 and SPZP-2016

    Annotation : Daw Mae Khin Nyunt (Rosie, ChE71)

    Right to Left

    • Aye Aye Than (Pauk Pauk, Ch 66-72, UK)
    • Tin Tin Myint (Emma Myint, Ch 64-70, Singapore)
    • Hla Hla Aye (She was as a cover girl at one of the “Shay Tho Sar Saung”, and inside the Sar Saung had an article about RIT activities with photos. I kept that Sar Saung, but unfortunately (after so many years) now I only have a page left with a photo taken at the Chemistry lab, which included Ma Khin Myat Swe (spouse of Saya U Moe Aung), Henry Koe, my spouse Ko Khin Mg Miynt and myself).
    • Tin Aye (C )
    • Nelly Khin Myo Win (GBNF) (Ch 65-71, Mandalay)
    • Could be Margaret Yi (Ch 65)

    All are from G -Hall at one of the Tha Din Gyut or Da Saung Taing Pwe at Shwe Dagon Pagoda, organized by G -Hall.

    Reunions

    Daw Pwint Than

    Daw Pwint Than and Daw Cho Cho Tin
    • Selected High School Luyechun from Loikaw twice : Ngapali Camp in the Summer of 1964 and Inlay Camp in the Summer of 1965.
    • Graduated with Electrical Power in 1971.
    • Joined EPC.
    • Spouse : U Htun Aung (EP, Intake of 1964)

    Daw Cho Cho Tin

    Five Belles
    • Pen name : Ma Sandar
    • Award winning author / novelist
    • Sample hit : “G Hall Thu”
    • Graduated with Architecture in 1971.
    • Spouse : U San Maung (A, intake of 1964)

    Daw Than Yi

    • Maubin Ma Shwe Than

    Rosie Gyi

    • Editor, Swel Daw Yeik Magazine

    Rosie Tin Maung

    • Vocalist
    • Bilingual Author

    SPZP

    • Attendees
    Belles 1
  • January 2013

    January 2013

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    Greetings

    Dear Sayas and Colleagues,

    Wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

    Thanks

    Thanks to all the readers — mostly silent but occasionally appreciative.

    RIT Sayas

    Since I was a Saya, but not at RIT, I was not as busy as my classmates who were RIT sayas attending SPZPs once or twice a day.

    Guest

    Some alums (e.g. class of 70 and 71, Mech 72, Civil 75) invited me as guest to their class reunions and/or SPZPs. Thanks.

    69ers

    My classmates (from the class of 69++) had a grand reunion lunch, where Ko Aung Min made a roll call of the GBNF before being entertained to food, drinks, welcome addresses, songs and dances. Thanks. Please read Ko Aung Min’s e-mail.

    With metta,

    Hla Min

    From U Aung Min (M69)

    Dear All 69++er Classmates,

    • Today, (31 December, 2012) we RIT 1969++ classmates held a grand re-union lunch successfully.
    • About 90 classmates including about 8 ladies join the re-union, from abroad and in land.
    • Although we sold the lunch tickets @ 10000 Kyats per head, KO TIN WIN (Mining) took the opportunity of hosting the re-reunion and providing Whiskey.
    • So, almost all the cash, sold amount, will be transferred to the 69er Health Care Fund
    • Ko Kyaw Zin also brought one liter of Chivas
    • Danny, Albert, and Saw Law La Htwe — good vocalists — entertained at the ceremony.

    With Metta,
    Aung Min

  • Swel Daw Yeik Foundation

    Swel Daw Yeik Foundation

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    စွယ်တော်ရိပ်ဖေါင်ဒေးရှင်း

    2013 တွင် ဖွဲ့စည်း Formed in 2013

    မှတ်တမ်း (တချို့)

    တံဆိပ် Logo

    SDYF 1

    ဆရာ ဆရာမ များ ရဲ့ ကျန်းမာရေး — ဦးစား Health Care for Sayas & Sayamas is a Priority

    အခမ်းအနား Ceremony

    SDYF 2

    ဦးဝင်းထိန်ဦး — Organizer / Fundraiser

    SDYF 3

    Annual Medical Checkup

    SDYF 4

    လစဉ် အစည်းအဝေး (Covid မတိုင်မီ) Monthly Meeting (before the pandemic)

    SDYF 5

    ဆရာဦးမိုးအောင် — နာယက U Moe Aung : Patron

    ဦးခင်မောင်ထွန်း — ဥက္ကဌ၊ U Khin Maung Tun, President & Major Donor

    ဆက်နွယ် Related

    • Steeve and Helen Kay Health Care Fund for RIT Sayas and Sayamas
    • Vision Care — ဦးခင်မောင်ထွန်း မိသားစု

    SDYF ထောက်ပံ့မှု များ Assistance

    • Hospitalization
    • Special Cases
    • Long term care assistance
    • Frequent visits to Clinic

    Posts

    • Annual Medical Checkup
    • Health Care Funds
    • Jara, Byadi & Marana
  • List of RIT Sayas

    List of RIT Sayas

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    Background

    HMEE book (published in 2012) has interesting information and Appendices

    One is a list of sayas assigned to RIT in 1964

    Another is a list of sayas in 1988

    Sayas in 1988

    For those who have not seen them, Saya U Tin Myint has shared the list from 1988

    နောက်ထပ်ထွက်လာတဲ့ အာအိုင်တီသမိုင်းဝင် အမိန့်စာတစ်ခု။

    ၁၉၈၈ ဖေဖဝါရီလ ၅ ရက် ကထွက်တဲ့ အဆည အမိန့်စာ

    ရုတ်တရက်ကြည့်ရင်တော့ ရာထူးတိုး အမိန့်စာတစ်စောင်ပါဘဲ။

    – ၁၉၈၈ ခုနှစ်က အာအိုတီ ဆရာအင်အား စာရင်း အပြည့်အစုံကိုတွေ့ရမယ်။ ကျနော်မှတ်မိသလောက်ဆို ဆရာအင်အားအပြည့်ဆုံး အချိန်ဆိုရမလားဘဲ။ ဒါပေမဲ့ နိုင်ငံခြားပညာသင် အခွင့်အရေး တွေ ခါတိုင်းထက် ပိုလာတဲ့ကာလ၊ ဒီတော့ ကျောင်း လက်ကျန်အင်အားက​လျော့၊ ရန်ကုန်မှာ ကျန်ခဲ့တဲ့ ဆရာတွေက တစ်ပါတ်ကို စာသင်ချိန် ၂၀ -၂၅ လောက်ယူရတယ်။

    – ရာထူးတိုးမပေးတာ ဘယ်လောက်ကြာသွားလဲဆိုတော့ စီနီယာ ကျတဲ့ ကျနော်တို့ဆရာကြီးတွေ ရာထူးတိုးဘို့ ဘယ်လောက်ကြာခဲ့လဲဆိုတာ အမိန့်စာကို သေချာကြည့် သိသာလှပါတယ်၊ ကျနော်တို့က လက်ထောက်ကထိက ရာထူးရဖို့ ၆ နှစ်လောက်ဘဲစောင့်လိုက်ရတယ်၊ ကျနော်တို့ဆရာကြီးတွေက ၁၀နှစ် ၁၅နှစ်မက စောင့်ရတယ်၊

    အခုကာလကတော့ မြင်မြင်သမျှ ပါမောက္ခ ပါ။

    – စက်မှုဌာနမှာ အရင်က ဆရာမ ဆိုလို့ ဒေါ်ဂျက်စီထွေးတစ်ယောက်ဘဲရှိရာကနေ၊ ၂ ယောက်ဖြစ်တဲ့ အချိန်၊ အခုကျတော့ ဆရာမ အင်အားများတဲ့ ပြောင်းပြန်ကာလ၊်

    Sayas 1
    Sayas 2
    Sayas 3
    Sayas 4
    Sayas 5

    Posts

    • Education Systems
    • HMEE
    • Positions & Salaries
  • Four M70

    Four M70

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2025

    U Tha Htay

    Four M70
    • Graduated with Mechanical Engineering in 1970.
    • Entrepreneur & Philanthropist
    • Major Donor for the Reunion & Acariya Pu Zaw Pwe of the Combined 1st BE Intake of 64 and 65.
    • Organized a Trip for Saya U Ba Than & selected attendees of SPZP-2012.
    • Helped organize the farewell party for U Shwe Hlaing (RIT Maths) and also delivered the farewell message in Burmese.
    • He is seen in the photo with his M70 classmates.

    U Soe Aung

    • Mech / Auto
    • Secretary of RIT Ah Nu Pyinnya Ah Thinn
    • Played the Clarinet

    U Win Aung

    • High School Luyechun from TTT Practicing School in the Summer of 1964.
    • Secretary of RIT Swimming & Water Polo Association.

    U Win Htay (Walter)

    • Hosted his cousin Saya U Tun Shwe during Saya’s visit to attend 2015 RIT Alumni Reunion in Los Angeles.
    • Grapevine says that Walter’s friends shouted “Cheng Lyan” in front of his house. His father came out.

    Posts

    • Class of 1970
    • Combined 1st BE Intake of 64 and 65
    • RIT Days (1964 – 70)