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The link below connects to an album on Alex Mak's blog site in which there are some 39 photos of WYK62 gatherings in Hong Kong and abroad these few years as well as school era pictures taken during class picnics or Speech Days etc. For those interested in viewing these pics to refresh their memories of all WYK62'ers now and in the good old days, just click :-
http://akym176.multiply.com/photos/album/11/WYK62_Related_Photos
At our last meeting in September, James Li showed me a memorial booklet published by the St. Ignatius Church in Singapore to commemorate Fr. O'Neill. He asked me to scan some of the pages to share with our classmates on our blog . I flipped through the whole book and can only marveled at the speed and the excellent quality the booklet was put together, as it was published soon after Fr. O'Neill's funeral. I could feel that Fr. Tom, as he was affectionately known in his parish, was truly loved and missed by his congregation in Singapore. To gain a better insight to the man, I have uploaded, in addition to the pictures, some pages written by Fr. O'Neill's family members and also by Fr. Tseng. I was amazed at the deep devotion, dedication and sacrifice of the O'Neill family to the church. His only and younger brother is also a Jesuit priest in Ireland. Can you imagine the sentiment if it were a Chinese family?
Among the many tributes from the congregation, one stood out in my memory. One of the parishioners wrote that he was walking on the sidewalk near the church one day and suddenly he started to hear the most beautiful heavenly singing. For a moment, he thought he was undergoing a spiritual revelation. Then he found out it was Fr. Tom singing and riding on his bicycle, approaching from behind. What a free-spirited man! After reading through the book, I can only say that we have all read about saints and their life stories in prints, but Fr. O'Neill came closest to being one that ever walked among us. We are indeed very privileged to have known him in person. The booklet also contains a DVD that documents Fr. O'Neill's life through slide shows of his photo collection. If anyone is interested in obtaining a copy, please contact me for further information.
WYK, WYKPSA, WYOFF, WYHK and WYHKPSA have formed a Steering Committee to organise a series of celebration events from October 2009 to July 2010. The first activity is the Walkathon.
Please read the letter from Chairman of the Walkathon Organising Committee by clicking (閱讀全文) icon following this paragraph.
(閱讀全文)For those of you who are not familiar with Sinablog format, leaving a message on the blog can be frustrating with the Chinese interface and their choice of wording. Hope the following can help: (click on 閱讀全文 below left to see the whole article).
(閱讀全文)One more article - this time by James Tong (WYK65) has also been in our 留言簿 since 3 August. It's now being posted here as well for all to see -- Blog Admin.
Fr. Thomas O'Neill passed away on July 30, 2009 in Singapore where he had been directing retreats. The wake service were on Saturday and Sunday, funeral mass and cremation on Monday August 3rd in Singapore (click on 閱讀全文 below left to see the whole article).
(閱讀全文)The following article by Philip Chai has been in our 留言簿 since 3 August. It's now being posted here for all to see -- Blog Admin.
Sad to hear the news. From Fr. Tseng's email, looks like Fr. O'Neill passed away peacefully in his sleep after having afternoon tea. I will always have fond memory of him. I didn't make the 2002 class reunion in HK, and the last time I saw him was the dinner gathering in Los Altos, Calif in 1998 with Peter Sien, Clement Luk, Patrick Hsu, Dennis Chu, Paul Lee, Vincent Chu. I remember he told us the story how Butt Chak-cheung got his name "Yondani", but now I forgot the story! We will all miss him. May he rest in peace!
Philip Chai
Most of us had been in Fr.O'Neill's class during our years at Wah Yan Kowloon.
Many of us including myself have been lucky to be in his class of 2D and 4A.
The attached are the fondest memory of him while I traveled from Los Angeles, San Francisco, flew to Calgary Canada for the Wah Yan Conference and then stop by Vancouver to visit with our classmates.
I have observed how religious he was and so spiritual. He brought along stuffs with him that he served mass every day on the road privately. He was so funny in enjoying the ice cream cone in Vancouver, purchased by our beloved Raymond Lau 劉漢傑. [click 閱讀全文 below left to see the photos and click the photos to make them larger]
Up to now most of the pictures of Fr. O'Neill posted on this blog were taken in the past 10 years. We all remembered him as a handsome young Jesuit on the Wah Yan Kowloon campus. Thanks to our classmate Dominic Lee, we can refresh our memory a bit. He located a group photo taken after the Speech Day in 1962 and asked me to share it with everyone. The first photo is an enlargement of Fr. O'Neill from the same picture. You can click on the group picture to open to a larger picture for easy viewing. One more click will give you its maximum resolution.
If anyone of you wishes to share your old pictures of Fr. O'Neill, please email me or click on the heading of this article and then leave a message at the end of the article as indicated.
Curtesy of Yondani Butt and Victor Young and the assistance of Raymond Lau, we are now pleased to be able to post the following photos of our beloved Fr. O'Neill here on our Blog. [Click on (閱讀全文) below left and all the pix will appear and clicking on the pix will make them larger]
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This is an excerpt from an obituary in Singapore:
Father Tom O'Neill, S.J. passed away peacefully on 30 July 2009
Fr O'Neill was born on 30 January 1924, entered the Society of Jesus on 6 September 1941 and was ordained on 29 July 1955. He took his final vows on 2 February 1959.
For the 2002 reunion, James Li was in charge of arranging Fr. O'Neill's and Fr. Tseng's trip from
After hearing the sad news about Fr. O'Neill's passing, I tried to look up his biography but I cannot find a proper obituary. So I look up the“Jesuit”book and put together this brief biographical datelines and some personal remembrances.[click 閱讀全文 below left to see the whole article].
It was quite a privilege to have Fr. O'Neill as our Form Master in 4A. I liked his joyful gait when he walked into the class; the way he pronounced "nature" as "natuer" instead of "nacher"; the cheerful way he conducted himself when teaching (just close your eyes and picture him in class vs the others). What a teacher to have !
Fr. Thomas O'Neill passed away in Singapore on July 30, 2009. You are invited to leave your message, pay tribute to or share your fond memories of Fr. O'Neill on this blog, set up for and open to all WYK62 classmates. A lot of you have sent short emails expressing your thoughts. Here on this platform, you are free to expound on your thoughts as much as you like without jamming others with unwanted emails.
Fr Deignan and Fr Chow had written a letter to all concerned reporting on the progress of the "Wah Yan One Family Foundation". This letter dated 20th July 2009 stated that the donations now stand at HK$82.11m.
To read the letter, please click:
"華仁一家為將來 - One Family One Future"
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