The late Brother Albinus
KUCHING: Former principal Brother Albinus, whose real name is Michael O’Flaherty, 83, passed away peacefully in Prince Court Hospital in Kuala Lumpur at 11.28am yesterday.
He was admitted to the hospital three weeks ago for a stomach ailment. He had been vomiting and had just gone through an operation. His condition worsened on Saturday night, and at his bedside that night were some of his former students.
His remains would be flown here at 9am today and his former students and friends can pay their last respect at Tan Sri William Tan Auditorium at SMK St Joseph here from 1 pm to 10 pm today, and from 9am to 10pm on Aug 6 and 7. Wake prayers on Aug 5 to 7 are from 8pm onwards.
“Flower wreaths are respectfully declined,” said Prof Dr Sim Kui Hian, chairman of Old Josephian Association Kuching, yesterday.
The funeral mass will be held at 9am on Aug 8 at St Joseph’s Cathedral Kuching.
In Sibu, a condolence sign will be held today at 11.30am at the canteen of Sacred heart School, where he was the principal from 1972 to January 1987.
The man who believes in educating ‘the least, the lost and the last’ has devoted 52 years of his life to education with a large part of it in the state.
Thousands have benefited from his work academically, but more importantly, in their development as well-rounded persons steeped in strong moral values. His dedication is hard to match, his contributions immeasurable.
Albinus, who was born on May 23, 1930 in Ireland, started teaching at St Joseph’s Kuching in 1960 and later became its principal.
After 10 years at St Joseph’s Kuching, Brother Albinus was transferred to SacredHeartSecondary School in Sibu, first as a teacher and later became its principal.
After 17 years of serving at Sacred Heart, he retired in 1987, but was immediately appointed director of the A-Level of St Patrick’s Private School here.
In 1992, Brother Albinus was appointed principal of St Joseph’s Parish Tuition Centre, where he served until 1997 when he was invited to help out in China.
He then went to Fuzhou and found it immensely interesting there as the students were very dedicated and keen on mastering conversational English, as some had their eyes set on the US.
After an arterial by-pass in Australia in 1998, Albinus accepted an invitation to teach World Religions at IntiCollege here, where he spent two fruitful years.
Thereafter, he went back to the St Joseph Parish Tuition Centre and later started his own tuition class in English and Literature for Form 4 and 5 students.
In 2002, Albinus – with some former students of St Joseph’s and Sacred Heart – started Yayasan Lasallian Kuching for ‘educating the least, the lost, and the last’.
It is a programme in rural villages to help weaker students in Primary 5 and 6 to cope with UPSR. It was so successful that other villages requested to have similar centres for their children. With support from the village heads, there are now eight centres, the latest being in Skibang near the Indonesian border.
Due to his outstanding service to our society, the state through the late Head of State Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce, awarded him the PBB medal.
For more details, including funeral arrangements, please contact Helen at 0162882929/email [email protected] or William Chong at 0128884527/email [email protected]