Original Blog Here 

It is with deep regret that I write in my blog of the passing of Reverend Dato' Brother Tiberius Lawrence Spitzig this evening at 4.45pm. I received the sad news from Master Vincent Fernandez when he sent me a SMS at 7.17pm.

I was not blessed to have been a student under Bro Lawrence, but I have heard a great deal of him and read numerous articles written about him.

But both my younger brothers Jothi (in Oman now) and Jesu, were students when he was the Director of St John's Institution for the second time from 1979 to 1983 ( the first was from 1951-1965). I left SJI in 1975.

A Canadian by birth, he has been in Malaya since he was 19 years-old and is a true educationist and a saint to youth.

He joined the brotherhood in 1935 and arrived in Singapore in n1938 and taught there for three years. He came to St John's in 1941. He went to Penang in 1962 and was posted to La Salle PJ in 1967. He was back in St John's in 1978.

During the Japanese Occupation, Bro Lawrence and few other brothers who were at the Convent Bukit Nenas where taken away by Japanese police to Pudu Prison and later we sent to Changi Prison in Singapore for 2 1/2 years. They were only released after the war.

If there was two persons who knew Bro Lawrence well and were personal friends, it must definitely be the Fernandez brothers - David and Vincent - who were students and later taught under him in St John's.

When I asked Master Vincent to describe Bro Lawrence, this is what he had to say: "He was everything one would have expected a father to be and everything and more of what you would expect of a religious person."

I have picked several stories written in newspapers and blogs to give an insight of what Bro Lawrence has contributed all these years. But no words is enough this man who dedicated his entire life to the education and youth.

Bro Lawrence's body will lay in wake from 9.30am onwards tomorrow at the St. John's Institution and the funeral service will be at the St John's Cathedral at 10am on Aug 20 tentatively.