POSTSCRIPT

The King of Thailand greeting my father & his colleagues in 1984 (the gentleman far left is Kasem Chatikavanij, General Manager of the Electrical Generating Authority of Thailand, later Minister of Industry).


Response to the news of my father's passing has been overwhelming, both in comments below, and on Twitter. I thank you all for helping me honor his memory.

As the events of the past few days unfolded, it occurred to me that I neglected to mention my Dad's sole surviving brother Guy, in many ways a role model and a mentor when I lived in Australia prior to joining the US Army. Dad's older brother Phil was an RAAF aviator in World War II - KIA in Belgium, October 1941 - his younger brother Max died in Canada at age 58 of complications due to MS. I am very close to Max's kids (my Canadian cousins); they are supporters and regular readers of Blog STORMBRINGER.

During my meditations I also recollect my father's guidance that we always speak the English language properly, that we always use correct grammer and enunciation - "The Queens English". He stated that the single most important subject to learn in school is English, because this is the first impression by which people will judge you.

Dad admired Winston Churchill, pointing out that despite a speech impediment Churchill managed to become Prime Minister of Great Britain and is amongst the greatest speakers of the English language.

My father spoke clear concise English with almost no trace of Australian accent (which proves it is not a dialect but rather an attitude, and that there is a cure). He also spoke Malay (Bahasa Indonesia) and Thai. Most people assumed Dad was English; which by birth he was, of course, although just this week I was surprised when he explained to the nurse that he normally did not advertise his English birth because he left when he was six months old and was raised Australian.

A crane my father designed & constructed entirely of scrap items, to lift & move this 122 megawatt generator that weighed 1027 tons (931679 kg).




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