Professor Cheng Kwok-kew 鄭國翹
(MBBS 1939; DSc 1973)

Professor Cheng Kwok-kew, Emeritus Professor in Physiology passed away peacefully on May 13, 2008 at the age of 92.

Professor Cheng was born in Guangdong in 1916. Following graduation, he went back to China to work in the field hospitals as a medical officer and Leader of Unit 721 of the Chinese Red Cross Corps.

After World War II, he was selected to work at the University College Hospital, Medical School of London University, as a Chinese Government Research Scholar in Pathology from 1945 to 1948, and as a Graham Research Scholar in Pathology from 1948 to 1950.

He returned to join the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, HKU in 1958 as a Colonial Medical Research Fund Research Fellow.

He was the Professor and Head of the Department of Physiology from 1960 onwards, until he retired in 1976. He went on to become a physician in the Department of Heath of the Hong Kong Government till 1981 when he moved to private practice to provide medical care for patients with low incomes until 1987.

Professor Cheng was a kind and successful teacher, a physiologist and physician of the highest integrity. He will be fondly remembered and dearly missed by his students, colleagues, the Department of Physiology and the University.

Ng Chun-man 伍振民
(BArch 1955)

Ng Chun-man, one of the first Architecture graduates, and Founding Voting Member of the HKU Foundation, passed away peacefully on June 1, 2008, at the age of 83.

Ng practiced for more than 50 years as an architect in Hong Kong. He was responsible for a number of landmark projects in the 1960s and 1970s, including the first Convention Centre.

He founded Wong Ng Ouyang & Associates in 1963, and Ng Chun Man & Associates in 1972. He became Honorary Chairman of Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers (H.K.) Ltd and remained active until the end of May this year.

His successful career in the field of architecture was well known to architects of many generations.

Professor Philip St John Smart

Professor Smart, Harold Hsiao-Wo Lee Professor in Corporate Law, passed away peacefully on June 17, 2008.

Professor Smart graduated with first class honours from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies in 1982, followed by an LLM in 1983. He was a Harwicke Scholar at Lincoln’s Inn and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1984. He joined the University in 1985 and was admitted to the Hong Kong Bar in 1986.

As one of the world’s leading authorities on cross-border insolvency, his book Cross-Border Insolvency was ground breaking, cited in the highest courts of the common law world. At the time of his death, he was working on its third edition.

"He was a loyal friend and colleague who would not hesitate to give of himself if needed. In every facet of academic life he had huge ability, was loved by students, and admired and respected by colleagues.

As a lawyer, he had that rare ability to be all of: one who could distill principles from the most complex problems, handle them with great technical expertise, and come up with practical (and often straightforward) solutions (which only appeared so after he had pointed them out). And Philip was legitimately funny, not raucously so, but in a quiet understated manner. We will miss him hugely."

Professor Andrew J Halkyard and
Professor Charles D Booth
Faculty of Law, HKU