A Tribute to Mr & Mrs JMB Hughes

Dear Fellow Old Free,

A Tribute to Mr & Mrs JMB Hughes

As you are probably aware, our dear old Head Master, Mike and his wife, Jean who also taught at the school, passed away peacefully in their sleep within 6 days of each other on the 16^th March and 11^th March respectively after a short spell of illness.

While many of us, ‘younger’ old Frees remember the Hughes fondly during their long spell at the school from 1957 to 1963, some of the older ‘old’ Frees know Mike from the time he first came out to Malaya as it was known then, to teach at the PFS in 1947 before doing the rounds at the SAHC Alor Star, Sultan Ismail College Kota Bahru and High School Klang (not necessarily in that order or complete, from memory and stand to be corrected) and ending up at our school again before leaving finally in 1963.

During their stints, Mike and Jean contributed greatly to enhance the school’s already excellent academic and extracurricular activities, especially in sports, scouting and stage performances and made huge impacts on many of us personally.  Stories of their generosity of their time, words and acts of support and encouragement, and in kind to the students are legendary.

In KL, Jimmy Yeoh and the OFA here are organizing a special memorial for them, hopefully with participation via internet linkage with the Hughes family at 4 pm on the 27^th Mar, with details of venue to be confirmed.

Meanwhile a number of us have also discussed how we can acknowledge what Mike and Jean had done for us. We think it appropriate to

1)     Send a wreath asap for the funeral scheduled for them on Tues, 22^nd March at the Chapel of Rest, Okehampton, Devon.

2)     Organise a tribute, hopefully, with enough participation of at least a half page or preferably a full page to the Hughes in the STAR newspaper. This will be organized with permission from the family and after confirmation of contributions.

We are confident that many old Frees will wish to participate and contribute but due to time constraints and inability to contact in time, propose the following

1. Wreath to be sent and worded as follows “For the late Mr & Mrs JMB Hughes, our old HM and teacher, from the many Old Frees who remember them with fondness and gratitude and thank them for all their contributions in giving us a head start in life. ”
2. Tribute to follow within a month after confirmation by those who wish to contribute to the costs of the tribute publication, estimated at about RM7000 for half page or RM14000 for full page and the costs of the wreath (to be determined). In the tribute, we propose to include the list of names of the individual contributors and their school year e.g. ‘Jimmy Yeoh ’65 etc’ and end with ‘and other old Frees’ in order to include the other old Frees who cannot be reached in time but may want to contribute.

Please respond to me (pohsoon.chew@gmail.com) via email and confirm that you wish to participate in the ‘Tribute to Mr & Mrs JMB Hughes’ and will share in the costs involved before 25^th March 2011. Please also send this to other old Frees whom you know who may wish to acknowledge the contributions of Mike and Jean.

Thank you,

Fortis Atque Fidelis,

Chew Poh Soon,

On behalf of Class of 61 (Form 5)

18.3.11