Brother Columba passes away

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Brother Columba Gleeson

Brother Columba Gleeson

KUCHING: Brother Columba Gleeson, the last De La Salle principal of St Joseph’s School Kuching has passed away in Dublin, Ireland.

Old Josephians Association sources informed The Borneo Post that the 80-year-old Irish-born Brother died at around 6.30pm (Malaysian time) yesterday.

Bro Columba first came to Sarawak to teach in Sacred Heart School, Sibu in the 1957.

He became the principal of St Joseph’s in 1970 and served until his retirement in 1987. Old boys of the school fondly remember those years as an era of academic and co-curricular excellence in the school’s history.

State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohd Morshidi Abdul Ghani, who had studied under Bro Columba, described him as a great teacher and principal.

He said Bro Columba would always be there attending students’ welfare and needs both in studies and sports.

“He was race and religion blind,” Morshidi said when asked for his comments on Bro Columba’s demise.

When told of the sad news Sarawak United People’s Party president Senator Datuk Sim Kui Hian who is also the Old Josephians Association chairman said: “We have lost a friend, a teacher, a mentor and a principal who has touched the lives of so many students.

“His death is not only a loss to St Joseph’s School but also to the people of Sarawak.”

Another former student Prof Pierce Chow, Professor at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and Senior Consultant Surgeon at National Cancer Centre Singapore and Singapore General Hospital said: “For those who were fortunate to have been taught by him, it is the passing of an era, of that part of our lives when our characters were moulded into what we have become. He will forever be with us, for he is part of us.”

For The Borneo Post senior news editor Haroun Abdullah who is a former student, Bro Columba was a great disciplinarian who had the welfare of his students at heart.

“I believe those who had been in St Joseph’s School during Bro Columba’s time are proud to have been guided by such dedicated teacher.”

St Joseph’s School and the Old Josephians Association are making arrangements for the signing of the condolence book.