History
In April 1967 the Chan family approached the Jesuits to ask if they would be interested in taking over the running of a secondary school to the building of which they intended to contributing and in memory of their father Mr. Chan Sui Ki, a successful merchant and once the President of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, one of the well-known charity organizations in Hong Kong. Not wishing to accept the offer themselves, Fr. Cronin, the Provincial, proposed the offer to the La Salle Brothers. Eventually, it was decided that La Salle College accepts the offer and transfers the existing evening school operating in La Salle College to the new building. The evening school under the supervision of Brother Herman Fenton operated from 3:00 until about 8:00 p.m. The government would provide the site and an 80% subsidy. The Chan family would donate HK$500,000.
In December 1968, work began on the site. In April 1969 the foundation stone was laid by the then Director of Education, Mr. Gregg, and on 3 September the school moved into the classroom block—951 students and 34 teachers all told. All the while work on the school hall and the laboratories, library, geography, art-room, etc. and the Brothers' quarters (which unhappily provide an accommodation for only four) continued until 12 December when the building authority inspected the completed building in preparation for giving the final occupation permit. The official blessing and opening ceremony was performed on 12 February 1970 by Rev. Father Colombo P. P. and the Hon. J. Canning, Director of Education, respectively.
The community was inaugurated on 1 July 1969 when Brother Herman Fenton, Director and Brother Eugene Sharkey were appointed to the new school. Later they were joined by Brothers Cronan and Paul Hackett. Until the Brothers quarters were ready the community continued to reside in La Salle College.
Read more about this topic: Chan Sui Ki (La Salle) College
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“You treat world history as a mathematician does mathematics, in which nothing but laws and formulas exist, no reality, no good and evil, no time, no yesterday, no tomorrow, nothing but an eternal, shallow, mathematical present.”
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)
“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“Bias, point of view, fury—are they ... so dangerous and must they be ironed out of history, the hills flattened and the contours leveled? The professors talk ... about passion and point of view in history as a Calvinist talks about sin in the bedroom.”
—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)