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HE TAUGHT hundreds, but wanted to understand each individual.
That devotion is what the late Brother Joseph Kiely, former St Joseph's Institution (SJI) principal, is remembered for in his 40 years of teaching.
'He said each student had to be loved,' said Brother Michael Broughton, Brother President of SJI. He would remind teachers to 'understand their students' personalities and backgrounds'.
Last Tuesday, Brother Joseph, who was also the former principal of St Patrick's School and Catholic Junior College (CJC), died at the age of 75 in Glanaulin in Belfast, Ireland.
Irish by birth, he spent 50 years in Singapore before returning to Ireland as a Singapore citizen.
So unconventional was he as a teacher that Foreign Minister George Yeo, his student at St Patrick's, still recalled his sign language class in 1968, 40 years ago.
He enjoyed the occasional drink, durians, curry and Cantonese soups, as well as the outdoors.
Brother Joseph added a smaller scouts group to the main SJI chapter in 1958, naming it 'the Hippos' after his own scout's name.
Mr Stephen Goh, 68, a scout leader who worked with him for many years, remembered Brother Joseph's tirelessness. 'He would spend almost every night with the scouts in their den in the old SJI location at Bras Basah Road, singing songs and bonding.'
The eldest of seven in a Galway family, Brother Joseph is remembered by Dr Tony Tan, the education minister at the time, as 'conscientious and farsighted'.
He stuck to providing 'a holistic education grounded on sound moral values to students of all classes and financial circumstances'.
He finally returned to Ireland in 2000 and became the manager of Miguel House, a home for elderly Brothers in Castletown.
His younger brother, Brother Harry Kiely, 70, who is based in South Africa, said: 'He felt he could contribute more as a caregiver to ageing Brothers who, like him, had spent most of their lives in Asia.'
Early this year, he moved into the home of a Brother in Glanaulin and started working at a pastoral centre.
As months passed, he developed a chest infection, for which he was to be admitted to a Belfast hospital last weekend.
Before that could happen, he collapsed while walking down the stairs and died, shocking friends and family.
Two funeral services were held in Ireland on Friday. They were attended by hundreds, as well as five close friends from Singapore who flew up. Yesterday evening, a requiem mass was held in his memory at the SJI International Chapel here.
On his final trip to Singapore last November, he attended the 50th reunion dinner of SJI's class of 1957.
'We didn't know that would be the last time we would see him. We thought there would always be a next time,' said Mr Goh.
Brother Joseph was buried at Miguel House.
ameltan@sph.com.sg
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