‘Father of physical education’ Teoh Teik Lee, 95, works his mind and body as a nonagenarian by swimming daily.
Teoh, an exceptional man who lived an extraordinary life as a lecturer, is the toast of FMT’s tribute to educators in conjunction with Teachers’ Day today. To STTI graduates, he was the heartbeat of their physical education department, which he set up in 1959 and managed, until his retirement in 1980.
As the founder of the Physical Education Association in 1962 and the Royal Life Saving Society, Malaysian Branch in 1964, Teoh rubbed shoulders with royals, aristocrats, national leaders and intellectual luminaries of his day. Teoh said he was saddened that the facilities, including an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a 400m running track where national athletes trained, were in a deplorable condition today.
Students of Clifford school, Kuala Kangsar, doing gymnastics under the guidance of Teoh in his early days as a teacher there. Among those on hand to midwife the delivery of the courses was Leonard de Vries, an outstanding alumini of STTI . Teoh said another contribution of the STTI alumni to the society was the development of water safety and lifeguarding programmes in Malaysia.
He said the sight of the Earl Mountbatten of Burma and the first governor-general of independent India, resplendent in his uniform with the insignia of Admiral of the Fleet, was as “intimidating as it was glorious.” Mountbatten wanted Teoh, who was a member of RLSS, United Kingdom, to form a similar organisation in Malaysia as per the wish of Queen Elizabeth to have such bodies in the Commonwealth.
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