Contributions
Loke Yew was a canny businessman, who was excessively cautious with petty expenditure. Despite his wealth he was least expensively dressed man in his own office, owned second-hand motorcars and often went to work by rickshaw instead. There is a story that one rainy day his wife went in their car to fetch him home from their estate and found him soaking wet, with a hoe in hand showing a coolie how to dig. This showed his humility, and willingness to help others in need.
The successful businessman also strongly believed in the importance of education and was one of the founders, together with Thamboosamy Pillai, who established Victoria Institution and even donated a large sum of money to Methodist Boys' School Kuala Lumpur for them to build a field. His compassionate nature also led to him lending help to many charitable causes including the establishment of the Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore. Loke also collected $55,000 for the endowment fund in 1912 for Hong Kong University and made a loan of $500,000 to the university interest-free for 25 years dating from 1915. Loke Hall in HKU was subsequently named in his honour.
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