Khoo Siew Mun née Leong Siew Mun
1938-2024
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Joining VI in 1956 as a 6th Form student Leong Siew Mun was amongst one of the earlier intakes of female students into VI. Coming from St Mary's as its School Vice-Captain she was a natural leader of her group. In the same group was her close friend Maureen Siebel the Captain of St Mary's. Siew Mun took active part in many plays produced in VI during 1956 and 1957. These included the wicked Merdeka parody, Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors (as an Abbess), Tobias and the Angel, and others. It soon became clear to all of us in VI that Siew Mun was a unique individual with a heightened sense of empathy, curiosity, scholarship and a sense of perfection. Siew Mun made close life-long friends - she empathised with and supported all including those from different religious outlooks and different roles in life. To name just a few of her life-long friends amongst her classmates - Maureen Siebel, Josie Mei, Punithavathy, Hamzah Majeed, Krishen Jit, Thillianathan, Isher Singh, and later from University Lee Kee Kok, Ten Chin Liew, Rita Joshi and Balakrishnan. She also retained her close friendship with teachers who had taught her in the V.I. including Mr John Doraisamy and Dr Kathleen Jones till they passed away. Siew Mun attended the University of Malaya in its transition from Singapore. The first University of Malaya year courses were held in the Technical College grounds in KL. Subsequent years courses were at the University of Malaya in Singapore. There she met Philip Khoo who swept her off her feet. They married after completing University and had two children - Su-Ming and Ronald Khoo. Siew Mun was a perfectionist in her chosen career - Librarianship. She encouraged and supported her staff to excellence in providing prompt and thoroughly researched material for researchers. Her staff speak highly of her support of them as they made efforts to provide excellence in service. Her staff say she had a talent in picking out staff with potential for much higher levels of performance and thereafter encouraging them to that higher performance. One of her librarians in the University of Malaya (UM) Devinder Chall says "Mrs Khoo was the best librarian that UM ever had." Siew Mun was curious about life, places and people. She travelled to almost all corners of the globe seeing places, meeting new persons and places. She had an insatiable curiosity. Siew Mun had a love of opera and was known to travel continents to attend outstanding performances outside Kuala Lumpur. She lived life to the fullest and was a delightful storyteller to her nieces. She touched many lives and will be missed. Isher Singh Sekhon (VI 1951-1957) Su Ming, Ronald and Jenny, Thank you for giving me the opportunity to pay tribute to your Mother. I had not imagined that this opportunity would occur so gently yet swiftly as she was expected at our home for lunch the day she was rushed to hospital just ten days ago. I think I can rightly claim to be Siew Mun's oldest friend although I can't claim to know her as well as many of you here today. She and I were schooled in the same School, the genteel St Mary's Girls' School, located on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur in what is now known as the Golden Triangle. In the 1950s, buildings in Kuala Lumpur and in the surrounding areas were still within the human scale, mostly just two storeys. St Mary's School was such a building, just two storeys, and wooden floors and wooden doors and windows. We had a large field, a few rubber trees in the outskirts of the compound, and frangipani trees along the driveway. Siew Mun, then Leong, and I were five years apart so when I became School Captain in my last year of school, in 1950, she was 12 years old and in standard 5, which accounts for the misplaced impression that there was something special about a person who held that position!! I am sure we would both agree that the School gave us the foundation on which our personal and scholastic lives were anchored. Our headmistress, Miss Florence Carpenter, set the tone for the School. She was recruited in England with the specific aim to bring education to girls living in this outpost ( the Federated Malay States ) of the British Empire. Were it not for these missionary ladies such as Sister Enda, (Assunta School) Miss Josephine Foss, (Pudu English Girls School) Miss Mabel Marsh, (Methodist Girls School), Miss Glasgow, (Bukit Bintang Girls School), there would have been no access to education for such as Siew Mun and I . Miss Carpenter was a larger than life personality in the School, outstanding in the sheer simplicity of her life - she refused a car and rode a bicycle wherever she went including regular Sunday worship in St Mary's Church. Each school day began with Assembly when we sang a hymn, the Headmistress led a short prayer, and then some announcements - ( It was a great and tearful joy for me to have Ronald open this service with the great Anglican hymn 'Praise my Soul the King of Heaven'. Girls of all races and religions attended Assembly except for the very few Muslim girls. Miss Carpenter herself taught English Language, English Literature and Scripture. Her lessons in Literature opened windows to the beauty of poetry, prose and drama. Girls were encouraged to participate fully in all activities and extracurricular activities. Siew Mun was so loyal to the School and its heritage, she even arranged for her daughter Su Ming to be registered for admission to St Mary's School although they then lived in Petaling Jaya and it meant a long commute for her. This was the heritage Siew Mun and I shared as we began to spread our wings. Being five years apart, Siew Mun and I just missed each other in University and I lost sight of her for a while until much later, by which time she had married Philip Khoo and produced their first-born, incidentally named Ronald, after the person who delivered him into this wonderful world we call planet Earth. Su Ming followed to complete the Khoo family until later, joined by the lovely Jenny. Many here would have experience of the many facets of Siew Mun's character and personality especially in her chosen professional field as a librarian and the high standards she maintained especially for the University of Malaya which she headed for many years. But most, most outstanding, was the way she nurtured friendships. She devoted herself to friends, sparing neither effort nor means - many will remember the reunion lunch she hosted for MU Alumni in order that we may come together to renew friendships - it was an enormous task she undertook virtually single handedly striving not to miss out anybody. Her annual Chinese New Year visits, laden with traditional gifts of cookies, love letters, lap cheong, mushrooms and of course the best box of oranges carefully selected. She never forgot the second generation nor the domestics of the household. Her carefully timed visits was not just to deliver but to also sit a while, converse , and then move on to the next destination taking the whole day and yet another. Finally, an email arrived acknowledging age had become a deterrent and she regretfully admitted she could no longer carry on.... she was ever so apologetic!! The McCoy Family have been greatly enriched by this lady named Leong / Khoo Siew Mun. We will miss her but we know she has just gone ahead on a road we must all take. Thank you. Susheila Vethavanam McCoy (VI 1951-1952) Starting her academic career as a transport economist, she built the excellent Faculty of Economics and Administration library before becoming UM's Chief Librarian. Reputedly the best economics editor in the country, she was the editor of the five-volume collected works of Ungku Aziz among others including much voluntary work for the Malaysian Economic Association and its longtime president, the late Datuk Mokhzani Abdul Rahim. Malaysian Economic Association  The Comedy of Errors at the Town Hall 7th to 11th August 1956 Siew Mun, as Abbess Aemilia, is second from left  The female cast of The Comedy of Errors. L to R: Leong Siew Mun (Aemilia), Inderjit Kaur Bul (Adriana), Miss Yvonne Stanley (wardrobe manager), Maureen Siebel (Luciana), Punithavathy (courtesan), Chan May Chen (Nell, a kitchen maid)  Some Editorial Board members of the Seladang and the Victorian L to R: Soo Suk Suet, Hamzah Majid, Leong Siew Mun, Mr Ganga Singh, Mr G Fernandez, Josie Mei, Baljit Singh Sambhi. Speech Day, 1956  VI Prefects Board 1957  Classmates with, in foreground, the wife and daughter of VI HM, Dr Lewis; Background, from left: Letchumanan, Josie Mei, Maureen Siebel, Siew Mun, Chooi Mun Sau, Jimmy Wong  Two of Siew Mun's favourite teachers  Annual Selangor Prefects Social at the VI Hall 1957 Siew Mun (centre) is seated with other VI prefects. Her sister, Siew Yue, then a Form 5 St Mary's prefect, is standing directly behind her.  Siew Mun and Philip (1)  Siew Mun and Philip (2)  Siew Mun and son Ronald, in 1964 and 2020  She posed for a portrait by Victorian Benjamin Ong (VI 2000 - 2006)  Khoo Siew Mun (2012)  In her later years Siew Mun attended V.I. Reunions in...  
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