2 Foo Hong 符大煥(31-73): Winthrop & BEP

 

Winthrop & BEP

Foo Hong 符大煥(31-73) 

符傳孝Sun-Hoo Foo (32-74-109）

Mar 6 2022

 

Winthrop is the person who opened the door of opportunities many times for my dad. It was the bloody second World War that somehow linked them together.

First, dad was selected to be his private chauffeur. While waiting in the car for Winthrop family’s weekend outings, dad was not idle. He repaired small radios or painted, and this was noticed with a thumb up. Winthrop allowed dad to open a convenient canteen in the military compound so dad’s relatives and friends could have work. He lost the chauffeur job and canteen soon after Winthrop left the army. When Winthrop returned to work for Coltman several months later, he recommended dad for a Booty & Edwards (BE) draftsman apprenticeship. I am not sure what made Winthrop think of all of these things. He was very kind to dad. His help might just be small conveniences, but they were enormous uplifts for dad. 

Coltman was released from Changi prison on September 1945. When sailing back to England, he said to his wife, “I hope to God I never see this bloody place again.” Because of his age, he could only get a job paying 800 pounds per annum as an assistant Architect at London, Minister of work. So, he was persuaded to return to Kuala Lumpur to resuscitate his company, Booty & Edwards. His company lost every things, yet there was a lot of terrific renovation works. There were needs for skilled workers, and diploma requirements probably were not as restricted, so dad had the opportunity to learn and filled the gap.

 

Without formal education, Dad's salary increased 5 times from being an apprentice with 65 Malay
Ringgits (RM) to 300 RM within two years, and then about 10 times to 578 RM when he became chief draftsman within 3 years. By the time he was sent to Brunei, he also had travel, vacation, housing and other allowances in addition to his basic salary of $750.

The salary for Booty & Edwards (BE) draftsmen was 100 RM (working experience 3-11 years), driver 40 RM, cook 60 RM. BE chief draftsman then was paid 350 RM before he defected to another company for 516 RM, and dad was 325 RM.

Coltman designated dad only to work with him, in his private air-conditioned room (air-condition was a rare luxury then), on his competition for a 7 stories post-office building in December 1950. Coltman won the third place with 3000 RM prize money.  After the chief draftsman left, Dad was offered the position with a 4-year contract, 578 RM per month plus 6-month vacation and travel allowance for the whole family.

He was 26 years old (1948) when he joined BE. During that time, he simultaneously attended evening technical school ( no University in Malaya), learned from his superiors, and from books. During the probation, he showed a designed house plan to Mr. Coltman within 3 months.. In 2 years, he was promoted to Chief draftsman. He earned about 10 times of what he was paid when he started, plus the benefits. That was the salary of a young college graduated architect with 5 years of experience. As chief draftsman, he was giving the full responsivity of  drafting all the detail plans of the  Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque in 1952 (age 30).  After that, He was transferred to Brunei to  oversee the construction of the mosque.  He continue his position as chief draftsman of the the company under Coltman, and then Bailey. He got his Architect certificate from Brunei in 1956. He actually made some suggestions, revised some details, and even designed a whole project by himself later. His association with BE contributed to BE’s most productive years and of course, he was well compensated. 

What a remarkable achievement for a young man who lost his education at age 15, going through the hardship of war.

With Foo Chi-Ying's introduction, he applied for a driver's job  in the Army.  later, as Colonel Winthrop’s private chauffer in 1947 (age 25), dad served him well. Winthrop appreciated dad’s talent and recommended him later to Coltman as an apprentice, when Winthrop himself returned to join BE after his discharged from the army. Of course, without Winthrop's kindness and his eyes on recognizing talent (伯樂識馬), dad would not have the opportunity/fortune to walk on the path to achieve what he eventually accomplished. 

He was assigned to make a   2m x 2m  size Mosque model to present to the Brunei sultan . Without previous formal training, he improvised a lot to accomplish the task. This included picking dead branches from the botanic garden with Kington Loo. He finished the task in three months. Dad and Coltman flew to Brunei to present the model after the model arrived by sea, the only way to ship then. The budget for the mosque was initially 250,000 dollars, later increased to 3 million and ended up completed with a cost of 6 million. Dad later spent months of efforts trying to commercialize the scaled down mosque model. He used self-made cement molds to cast with plaster of Paris. He presented a best scaled mosque to the Sultan, however, this commercial endeavor failed. Later, he brought me one of the few remaining specimens when he came to NYC.

Dad always felt lucky to have met Winthrop, Coltman, Bailey and appreciated their kindness and support. In the end, he served BEP well, and he was well rewarded. He taught us not to forget people’s kindness and so he was loyal to BE despites persuasions *

In 1948 (age 26), dad already had mom, Francis, me and two younger half siblings to support. He told Mr. Coltman that he needed 150 RM. But afterwards, he started to help support his younger brother,  family, friends, and acquaintances in Hainan, Singapore and Malaya. His monthly 1300 RM salary in Brunei was barely enough. One day his best friend, Wong Ching-Ho advised him to think about saving money for his children’s future education (6 of us plus more). He finally realized no matter how well BE treated him, he could not be a partner, and he would not make enough to support his children's need. He declined to continue the contract, but still worked for BE until 1975, and then started his own firm. He later ventured into land development. He finally secured funds for his children’s education and charitable works, which his salary would not be able to support. 

“It was the worst of times; it was the best of times.”  Dad started school at age 7 and finished his primary school in 4 years at age 11. He was number 8 to get into the best local high school at age 12 (falsified his age to 16 so he could take the exam) With the impending invasion of Japan after two years of high school, his mother borrowed $390 Chinese yen to pay 5 Singaporeans their boat tickets, so they would sponsor him out to Singapore. He started to work in Malaya at age 15.

I always wonder, if he had the good fortune given to us, who/what would he become?

The lesion I learn from dad/BE experiences is well matched with that of Corylus contorta or a groundhog hanging on a float. 

Each life is a rain drop falling on water, the ripples propagate and are felt forever.

 

*Winthrop's name is mentioned only once in BEP-100, Coltman’s memoir, p77 as one of his 6 architects, 30 drawing staff (dad is one of the unnamed). Here I paraphrase a Coltman’s sentence in his  last memoir page: “Malaya has served me well but I too have served Malaya”

 Winthrop’s weekend outing included his wife and daughter. At the end of 1950, his son(?) died, He was upset and asked dad to finish his project. His work was the 2nd BE submission for that post-office competition. It did not win. (That is all I know about Winthrop, dad’s benefactor)

 At this time, Mom, in her 20+, was cooking, cleaning for the large family including 4 young children. (Hard to image how she could do that alonet. I remembered her brother, Long Ah Keh, drove a small van and dropped off a free loaf of freshly baked bread afternoon.  

Data and quotes are from Foo Hong’s autobiography and BEP-100.   BE changed to BEP (Booty Edwards & Partners) in late 50, now is BEP Akitek Sdn Bhd.

 

Following photo is adopted from BEP-100, showing the projects of BEP from 1950-70. The first two decades list the projects in Brunei when dad was the chief draftsman. ( you may click and enlarge for details)