Dr. V. Alex Sharma (MEHS '56) took early retirement with the title of Professor Emeritus of Education from Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada,as of June 1,'03, after 37 years of teaching (9 yrs in Indiana, U.S.A. + 28 yrs at Concordia). In addition to continuing as a consultant with schools in Canada, U.S.A, and elsewhere abroad, he will be doing lots of travelling including a trip to Myanmar.

There is a recent article about travel to Burma, published in The Washington Post newspaper. I found it quite interesting.

I am wondering how it compares to the experiences of the people who visited Burma for the MEOSA reunion a few months ago.

Cheers,
Bob Fuller

The link to the article is:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31606-2003May23.html

If anyone is interested, I can send you the G.C.E. (General Certificate of Education) from the University of London. Even though it was only the Ordinary Level for each of six subjects it was sufficient for acceptance by the University of Califoria at Berkeley and the University of Maryland Overseas Extension Campus in the Ryukyu Islands.

General science included Biology, Chemistry and Physics and Pure Mathematics included Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry. One can value the depth of our education at M.E.H.S. I enrolled at Berkeley through correspondence classes after my third child was a year old and I had just obtained a driving licence! In the Ryukyu Islands I attended evening classes at the University of Maryland Overseas Extension Campus along with the draftees stationed on the main island during the Vietnam War. Upon returning to California I intended working part-time only for a large commercial bank and continuing my education for a PhD but after 24 years with the bank I retired as a Loan Officer, a position I really enjoyed.

Sometimes this seems like yesterday and when I am in my garden now with my darling husband and grandchildren it seems like a century away. Many of us from M.E.H.S. have progressed in our own fields of endeavour thanks to the demand for excellence and perseverence of the Principal and teachers and also the help of friends and family or else we might be still struggling to mete out a frugal living.

I recently visited my bed-ridden mother and realize also how much I learnt from her. She has character, insight and great determination and is still a very strong woman. I hope that I can emulate her for the sake of my expected great-grandchild.

I am sure everybody agrees with me that MEHSA web-site is the most important site for all new and old alumni. It brings back missing old friends together while updating news concerning the MEHS.

Do you think we should all make some contributions for the cost of maintaining this magnificent MEHSA web-site?

Thank you very much for your time and dedication Kenny.

Thomas.

I have just caught up with the recent comments and was happy to see that Norman Noah knew the Gillmans also. I do hope he knows where they are. I tried his e-mail but something went wrong. I also believe that Rhoda Linton might have known Maureen Lal and Myrna Rodriguez who taught at MEHS after graduation. I shall inform June Larden (one of Maureen's cousins now living in Kent). I know the great pleasure from hearing from old friends and acquaintances of our dear school.

My brothers and sister all started our education from Methodist English High School and later it changed to SHS (1) Dagon. I was in MEHS from Lower Kg to Upper Kg. I did not remember all other teachers and Mrs. Logie but I remember Daw Aye Than, Daw Tin Tin sein, and Daw Mya Mya.

I am proud to be one of the students from MEHS and Dagon (1) which is one of the most famous schools in the whole country, Burma.

I am now in Texas and I am in the medical field. You can send email to me. I think I might not know my seniors from MEHS but would like to know them.

Dear Friends,

Although it has been over 40 years since contact with most of you, I have enjoyed hearing what has been happening by way of this website; thanks to those of you who have put in the imagination and effort of maintenance. I was in Rangoon from 1958-1961, teaching at MEHS during the latter part of my stay.

I will be returning to Rangoon for three months as of February 2, 2003. If any of you know MEHS people in Rangoon who might remember me, please let me know their addresses so I might contact them (email is rlinton@earthlink.net).

Currently I am a teacher in the Graduate College of The Union Institute, a US national PhD program without walls; I am on sabbatical leave this year. I live near Ithaca, NY, the same rural township where I lived when I went to Burma the first time.

Thanks,
Rhoda Linton

I must be one of the earliest pupils on your website as I joined the School in the Methodist Church in 1946. The only names I remember were Priscilla Howard and ? Michaeli [whose father ran an icecream parlour]. I became friendly later with Brian, Henry and Mervyn Gillman and also met their sister Ann.

We move to the present building in 1947 I think and I had to leave the School in 1948 when my parents went to work in Burma Corporation in Namtu. I was packed off to boarding School in Darjeeling. I was only in MEHS for 2-3 years and very young [6-9 years old] but the School gave me a grounding I never lost. I remember Mrs. Logie well and she taught us most subjects except mathematics and biology.

I now live in Harrow, England, have a wife and three grown up children and am due to retire next year [I qualified as a doctor in London and am Professor of Public Health at London university]. I would love to hear from anyone who was at the School at about that time, especially the names I mentioned above.

Norman

In 1988 Juliet Teoh contacted me and with the help of Roland Khin and Ying Ying Htaike published the first two MEHS newsletters. MEHS has become an "International" school because its alumni now reside in many countries. And the Internet has facilitated the establishment of this "unique" community. Many thanks to Kenny Teoh and friends who have made this possible.

MEHS stood and lived to its motto and to its anthem. I am proud and thankful to God for giving me and my siblings such blessings and privilege to attend such great and wonderful school.

We will always remember and treasure the precious memories of the years at MEHS. May we all lift up and live for what God calls us to do, that is to know Him and to glorify His Wonderful Name.

God Bless Us All.

TohEng Lim, D.M.D., M.Div.

I received a lovely long note from Myrna (Rodriguez) Gabba in her Christmas card. She has two children and two grandchildren whom she babysits. At school we were rivals for the A's in grades and the teachers' praises, but were friends at parties since we were the popular ones with the boys. The years since then have mellowed us both and we are happy to sit on our laurels. Now, if I could only hear from Ann Gillmon!

Would like to hear from former students who were at school say from 1957 to 1963...

Hi Douglas,
Does that make it 50 years ago since you were in Rangoon! Yes you were in my class and we used to play tennis - I remember Ellen too. Congratulations - it's nice to hear you are a professor of physics!

Last year I was at the MEHSA Reunion in England, where I met Bob Fuller. I also met Cecil Teoh and Robert Barnett, who were in the same class together with a few others. This year the Reunion will be in Burma, and wonder if there will be other surprises.

with greeting,
Molly

Hello:

I'm Bertie Aye!!! Long lost to the Alumnus. I'm from the same class as Henry Chen, Harry Taw and Gloria Hengshoon. I matriculated in 1957.

Anyway, I've been visiting this site for a few years now. It has brought back wonderful memories of the carefree days - so free of responsibilities. I was back in Rangoon this last winter - my first trip back since 1963! Saw the old school and the surrounding area. Wouldn't recognise it from my memories. I just wanted to let the folks, who are responsible for maintaining this site, know that they are doing a really wonderful job and although you may not hear back from us often, you should know your work is greatly appreciated. Keep it up. If, now and then, you need some help, let me know. Best wishes.

Bertie (or dirty Bertie as Mrs. Logie used to call me!!).

bertieaye@hotmail.com

I attended MEHS for one year, 1951-2, while my family lived in Burma. My two younger sisters, Ellen and Anne did as well. I then returned to the US to go to college in 1953. I am now a professor of physics at Cornell U. in Ithaca NY. I heard about your website from Bob Fuller.

A reply for Thomas Ong enquiring about Miss Ba and Miss Thein.

I am very sorry to have to let him know that both Miss Ba and Miss Thein, both our beloved teachers had passed away in Rangoon. I am not sure of the dates but Miss Thein passed away before Miss Ba in the 90's.

Peter

Yes, I do remember Michael Ling. Please refresh my memory with a picture and some incidents at school. Oh, those fun-loving days. Little did we know that some day we would all catch up and meet again if only through the internet!

I am not sure whether I notified your group of the loss of my wife Daw Tin Tin May (Patricia Nair) on December 25, 1997. She had a sudden, massive stroke and died immediately. She was not even aware of the incident. Tin Tin (as everyone in the West called her) was born in Bassein in 1944 and her family moved to Rangoon in the late 1940s.

MEHS was the only school that she attended, and she went on to obtain her B.Sc. degree in Rangoon. She was awarded a British Council scholarship to continue her studies at the University of Glasgow, where I was also a postgraduate student (I am English). We were married in 1970, and came to Houston (Texas) together a year later after I obtained my Ph.D. Tin Tin eventually obtained her doctorate, too.

After 20 years of research on the development of new clinical diagnostic techniques, she founded and ran a successful environmental testing laboratory. We have a daughter (Courtney, now 24 and married), and it is a pity that Tin Tin never saw my two granddaughters (Patricia, 4; Brittany, 1). Courtney is the owner of her own environmental testing laboratory (Mandalay Environmental).

Tin Tin enjoyed life to the fullest, and always had a Burmese smile on her face. It is fitting that she was surrounded by good friends at Christmas dinner when she left us.

Zingibers@aol.com

Dear colleagues,

I was a student at the Methodist English High School from 1962 to 1965 when I left for Egypt to accompany my father who was working in the Foreign Service. I was in the 3rd grade when I left school. By 1965, the school was in chaos. It was nationalized by the government and instead of Mrs. Logie, I remember some Burmese principal (I did not remember their names) coming to head the school. These principals were in the thick of changes that will appear later.

I remember boys changing their school uniforms from red shorts to green longyis and girls from red skirts to green htabis. I actually saw some girls dropping their htabis in front of the crowd because they did'nt know how to wear it! The school anthem has been changed to national anthem. I remember the last day when Mrs. Logie gave a farewell speech to us for the last time in the assembly hall. She was in tears. That was the last time I saw her. Then the story changes and my life changed.

I was in Egypt by 1965. I never met any of my school chums. They are Willy, a Chinese boy, Tazar(?) an Indian boy, Amanda Chit, a Burmese girl and the rest I don't remember. Later in life, I met Daw Cho Cho Thin Gale at the Myanma Radio & Television Dept. where we worked together. I was at the MRTV for 14 years. She told me she was the MEHS mate too.

I remember teacher Daw Mya Sein, the Burmese teacher, who lived in South Okalappa. When our family arrived back in Rangoon in 1968, I and my sister had a Burmese tuition at her house back then. I think she died long ago. That was all I had concerning MEHS.

Anyway, I'm glad to make contact with MEHS again.

Tun Lat