U Shwe Kyaw (BIT Volleyball Selected)Daw Khin Toe Myint
Graduated in 1963 with Mechanical Engineering
He and U Aye (M62) played together in Ramanya Hall volleyball team during 1959-60 season.
Represented BIT and RU in Volleyball (along with U Aye M62)
Joined the Air Force and became a Pilot.
He was Air Force Captain (Officiating Major) when he perished in a plane crash.
Survived by Sayama Daw Khin Toe Myint (Zoology) and two children. Sayama is a dhamma friend. Her son U Thet Win Kyaw played the Drums at SPZP-2000.
U Shwe Zan Aung (SPHS63)
Std VIII B in SPHS
Matriculated from SPHS in 1963
Joined the Army and went to the front several times
His grandfather was afraid of losing another grandson prematurely. He requested SZA to leave the army and promised to provide financial support in exchange for peace of mind. His grandfather supported SZA’s family for a long time.
Finally joined a ship as a radio operator
Perished at sea when the ship sunk
Dr. Shwe Tun Kyaw
He and his spouse took early retirement from their medical practice in UK.
They volunteered as Assistant Teachers in several bi-lingual (Burmese and English) Goenka Center retreats.
He is a classmate of my younger sister. I met him at the house of Audrey Wong (C84), a volunteer for the Northern California Goenka Center.
The Class of 69 (mostly M69) paid respect to Sayagyi U Ba Than on October 1, 2017.
U Aung Min was the organizer.
U Ba Than
The group attended the birthday celebration ceremony and received blessing from sayargyi. The group handed over garawa birthday gifts that they had collected before and on the monthly breakfast gathering held earlier that day.
Sayagyi U Ba Than
Sayagyi usually performs dana with the Garawa money he received for his birthday and for attending the SPZPs and mini-SPZPs.
Sayagyi has supported various charitable associations for the needy, the sick, the blind, the deaf and dumb, old people and “Nar Ye” . They include
Little Sisters for the Poor
U Hla Tun Foundation
Jivitadana ဇီဝိတဒါန
Hnin Si Gone Bo Bwa Yeik Tha နှင်းဆီကုန်းဘိုးဘွားရိပ်သာ
Mary Chapman
Kyaw Thu Nar Ye (နာရေး အဖွဲ့)
Medical Clinics
On his Birthday every year, Sayagyi offers “soon kwyay” ဆွမ်းကျွေး at Yaw Sayadaw’s monastery.
The Soon kwyay held on October 2, 2017 was attended by sayas, alumni, relatives and friends.
Updates
During the pandemic, physical gatherings were put on hold. Celebrations were done virtually, e.g via Zoom
U Tin Htoon compiled a Photo Album for Sayagyi’s 90th birthday in 2020.
U Ba Than
Sayagyi passed away peacefully after his 94th birthday.
Served as a messenger for the RIT & Engineering Community for 26 years.
Newsletter
Newsletter
RIT Alumni International Newsletter was started in April 1999. Served as Chief Editor. In the early days, many RIT sayas and alumni provided articles, news & photos.
Messenger 2
RIT website
Maurice, HM, KMZ, Benny
U Khin Maung Zaw (KMZ, EC76) designed & implemented ex-rit.org website.
I served as Editor and Content Provider of the website.
Several hundred accessed the first RIT website.
The website played an important part for planning and implementing First RIT Grand Reunion & Saya Pu Zaw Pwe (SPZP-2000) held in San Francisco, California, USA in October 2000.
Some traveled from Burma, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Australia & New Zealand to attend SPZP-2000.
SPZP-2000
Membership
Founding member, RIT Alumni International
Founding member, NorCal RITAA
Life member, RITAA
Life member, BAPS
Life member, RUBC
Member, HMEE Project
Former Docent, Computer History Museum
Former member, ACM & SF Bay Area Chapter
Former member, IEEE (CS)
NorCal RITAA
Sharing News
Able to share news — good, sad and bad.
Jara and Byadihave caused a decline in health of sayas and alumni. Marana has claimed the lives of several especially during the pandemic.
Some sayas and alumni are Gone But Not Forgotten. The GBNF list for 69ers has 137 members.
With the event of social media, the number of RIT related pages grew. There are many silent readers and few active contributors.
Fact Checking
Being a messenger is not easy.
When an alumni asked me to relay the demise of U Ne Win Myint (Victor Win, ChE66), I double checked before posting the news. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Even then, someone who is near & dear to Jean (Mrs. Victor) claimed that Ko Victor was hospitalized, but had not passed away. The claim confused some alumni before the sad news was confirmed & details of the last journey were published.
Victor (Center)
When Dr. Tin Hlaing, former Principal of Maritime Studies, passed away in Singapore, an alumni posted Condolence message in the Facebook pages to the family of Saya Dr. Tin Hlaing (M63). Saya became a Tone Kyaw.
Dr. Tin Hlaing
There are fact checking websites. They have reports about Urban Myths & Legends.
Concerns
Some sayas & alumni want privacy. They do not want news of their visits or failing health to be relayed. We have to respect their concerns.
There are many posts by sayas, alumni & friends. The posts may be public, restricted or private. We have to be careful before sharing or re-posting them.
Most people do not have the time & energy to read long posts. A post should have an interesting & informative message.
As my mentors said, “The message is usually much more important than the messenger.”
Thanks
The RIT Spirit is alive and well.
Kudos to sayas, alumni, sponsors, donors, volunteers & well wishers.
Updates
I belong to various circles.
I have posted about them in my FB pages and website.
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)
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
In the lower classes, he was in Section (C). I was in Section (D).
Stood 13th in the whole of Burma in the Matric exam of 1963.
Won Collegiate Scholarship. Only 40 of the 100 scholarship awards were given to students from private schools.
SPHS had five in the Top Five, seven in the Top Ten, and ten in the top Twenty. Khin Maung U (1st), Min Oo (2nd), Myo San (Freddie, 3rd), Nyunt Wai (Victor, 4th), Thein Wai (5th), Hla Min (7th), Aung Kyaw Zaw (Johnny, 9th), Maung Maung Kyi (11th), Aung Thu Yein (Brownie, 13th), Khin Maung Zaw (Frank, 17th).
Has a soft heart.
Before the Matric exam, he read several subjects to Nyunt Wai (Victor), who was sick & could not study. Brownie could take credit for Victor’s success. Victor stood 4th in Burma & became medical professor in IM & Malaysia.
Dr. Nyunt Wai wrote :
Being my best friend since standard IV, I could write volumes about him. For now only two points: (1) my friend was called “ANyo”(Brownie) because he had much darker complexion compared with his elder brother (very fair complexion); this contrast repeated in the case of his two sons; (2) the brown brothers passed away years ahead of their fairer counterparts.
University Days
We attended the last ever I.Sc.(A) at Leik Khone in 1963. We took the Science Option.
After a long closure citing Security Concerns following the July 7th Anniversary, a new Education System was established in November 1964.
Admitted to the first ever 2nd BE at the Gyogone Campus.
Chose Electrical Engineering as Major & EC (Electrical Communications) as Option.
EE69
Played Soccer and Tennis
ATY 3
Learned to smoke — trying to fend off mosquitoes in the RIT rest rooms.
Learned social drinking from his classmates (e.g “Robert” Win Boh) after the last paper of the RIT final exam.
After Graduation
One of 13 EC Graduates
Had a successful career at MOC/Schlumberger, & several foreign assignments.
Became a heavy smoker & drinker. Felt lonely after the loss of spouse & eldest son.
Had minor & not-so-minor health problems.
Quit drinking & smoking for some time, but he still felt the urge.
Last Meeting (in March 2012)
I visited Yangon to take part in preparations for SPZP-2012 (scheduled for December).
Zaw Lai came to see me. We decided to surprise Brownie. He trusted people. He did not lock his house. He closed the gate & boarded Zaw Lai’s car.
Zaw Lai coaxed him to take a couple of drinks.
That dinner at Zaw Lai’s apartment would be remembered as Brownie’s farewell.
Brownie did not show up at the 69er breakfast gathering at Royal Rose. The gathering was cut short when we learned that Brownie was in ICU and that the 69er HCF organizers would go to see him.
Kyaw Zin took Win Lwin, Khin Maung Bo & me to the ICU. Brownie’s son, who is a medical doctor, said that Brownie was not ready for another operation. We left with samvegha that he could very well be No 61 (on Aung Min’s GBNF list). Win Lwin told me to meditate and also “do something for yourself”.
I spent several days at the Kaba Aye Sun Lun Gu Kyaung as a monk. Sayadaw U Wara (ChE70) was my preceptor.
During that period, Brownie remained unconsciousness and he finally succumbed.
My 69er friends notified Brownie’s demise to my siblings, but requested not to notify me at the monastery. They did not want to disrupt my meditation practice.
May Brownie be able to share my merits.
Ah Hmya, ah hmya, ah hmya.
Updates
Samvegha
Three Scholarship winners from SPHS63 — Brownie, Freddie & Maung Maung Kyi — are GBNF
Five EC69ers — Kyaw Soe, Brownie, Chit Tin, Oo Kyaw Hla & Sai Aik Yee — are GBNF
128 69ers (over 40% of the Class) are GBNF. The GBNF list is maintained by Aung Min (M69) & team
Several RIT EE Sayas — U Kyaw Tun, U Sein Hlaing, U Tin Swe, U Sein Win, U Thein Lwin, Dr. San Tint, U Soe Min, U Chin Way & U Nyi Nyi — are GBNF. For SPZP-2010, I wrote “A Sad & Short Clip : EE Sayas”. Two sayas — U Thein Lwin & U Nyi Nyi — have passed away since the article was published.
Moved to BIT at Gyogone Campus for 1961 – 62 Academic Year.
B.Sc. (Engg) in 1962
Textile
Daw Khin Than Nwe (T)
Daw Khin Than Nwe 1
Lone female graduate in 1962.
Spouse Dr. Khin Maung Win was Head of Metallurgy Department. Became Director General of Technical, Agricultural & Vocational Training.
Son, two daughters & several grandchildren
Daw Khin Than Nwe 2
Elder sister of two Paulians : Dr. Tin Maung Maung Than (Edward, Political Economics) & Dr. Khin Maung Maung Than (Freddie)
Pon Tu
On behalf of Bagyee Myat Myo Myint, Saya U Nyunt Htay (Met73) presented a Pon Tu of Dr. Khin Maung Win (Met, GBNF) to Sayagadaw
Mechanical
Saya Mao Toon Siong (M)
Saya MaoSaya Mao and U Hla Min
National Coach of Burma Table Tennis Team
National Table Tennis Champion in Singles and Doubles
Competed in the World Championship in Beijing
Spouse Daw Tin Tin Maw was Chemistry Sayama. They moved to USA.
U Aye (M)
U Aye (HIC, UN/FAO), U Soe and U Tin Win — all M62 —- received their degree certificates from Saya U Yone Mo at Aung San Stadium.
A group of friends at BIT after attending the convocation at the Aung San Stadium in 1962Saya U Yone Mo and M62 graduates
Represented RU & BIT in Volleyball
BIT Volleyball
Retired in Thailand
Provided feedback / info (e.g Grads from 1952 – 1963).
Saya S Arya (M, GBNF)
S Arya (M62)S Arya (M62)Thet Kyee Pu Zaw Pwe
Lovely accent
Remembered by students of his Strength of Materials Tutorial Class, and Ba Thein (Atlanta)
Saya Dr. Tin Win (M)
Dr. Tin Win and Lily
Youngest in the Class, but among the Top
In 1958, Gold Medal for Joint Highest Marks in Maths for Combined I.Sc classes
Past President of BASES
Organizer of 2015 RIT Alumni Reunion in Los Angeles
Competed in the LA Marathon to raise fund to sponsor Sayas for SPZP-2007
Spouse Lily (T72) : Founding member & Secretary of BEA
U Myint Thein Lwin (M)
Retired from DI / HIC
Brother: U Kyaw Thein (DCA, RUBC Captain)
U Hla Kyi (M)
Moved to UK
Daughter married son of U Hlwan Moe & Daw Khin Swe Aye (both Physics)
U Hla Kyi (M) and Dr. Tin Win (M)U Hla Kyi (M) and daughter visiting Los Angeles
Electrical
Saya U Tin Maung Thein (EE)
Eldest son of ICS U Ohn Maung (Arzani)
U Tin Maung Thein
Chemical
U Than Se (Richard, ChE)
SPHS56 : Classmate of U Soe Paing
Moved to USA
U Aung Gyi (Simon, ChE)
Helped publish ChE magazine
Spends time in Australia
Spouse : Daw Yin Yin Kyi (T61)
Civil
Dr. San Lin (C)
Taught part-time at RIT.
Worked at EPC & UN Project in Thailand
Moved to USA
Spouse Dr. Daw Thynn Thynn founded Sae Taw Win 2 Dhamma Center in Sebastopol, California. Replica of Shwe Dagon & surrounding Zedis had Htee Tin Pwe in March, 2022.
HlaMin 