Charles Choy (Friend)

Entered January 15, 2024 from Toronto

We shall deeply miss our life long friend. Our deepest sympathies to Philomena and
family.

Sincerely

Teresa & Charles Choy

Wilfred and Freda Wong (friend)

Entered January 15, 2024 from Toronto

Phil and family:
In this sorrowful time, you have our deepest sympathy on your loss. We will surely miss Rudy but happy memories with him will always remain in our hearts. Please accept our condolences. Know that our love, thoughts and prayer go out to you.
Wilfred and Freda

Don Irvine (Co-Worker)

Entered January 16, 2024 from Alliston Ont. / Holiday Fla.

Rudy was a very fine person and always seemed to be happy with work & family.We had some ood times together at work. God bless him and the family.in this time of sorrow.

Maria Anna 何煥儀Poon (Widow of first cousin 堂嫂)

Entered January 16, 2024 from Vancouver,B.C.

Rest in peace! You will be missed.

Ted & Sally Auyeung (Friend)

Entered January 16, 2024 from Stittsville, ON

Phil,
We had so much fond memories with you and Rudy during our cruises and land tours together and I learned a lot of history from him during those trips. I also have many fond memories of him from our high school days. We will miss him. Please accept our deepest condolences and take care youself during this difficult time.
Ted & Sally

Even up to the last months of 2022, he would ride his bicycle in the evening daily to keep me company walking, and he went lane swimming regularly at the Y before the pandemic. He loved the outdoors, music and sporting activities. He was an avid swimmer, good tennis player, goalie at his high school soccer team, classical music collector, and an enthusiastic windsurfer.

He was a history buff with infinite interest in and storage of historical events and data. Our travels were opportunities for him to witness and explore history, to his immense satisfaction and enjoyment. He would set the alarm to wake up to see the exact spot where the East meets the West at the Dardanelles, where a U-boat was sunk in the Atlantic, critical events at the Suez Canal.

Up to the end of 2022, he would unfailingly watch the movies The Longest Day on June 6, and Tora, Tora, Tora on December 7 th . On one of the cruises where there was a military reunion, he ended up attending their morning sessions, and spoke at one of their events.

A versatile handyman, Rudy took great pride in keeping his house and lawn top-notch and neat. When we acquired a cottage lot in the ‘70s, he finished the interior of the cottage: the floors, ceiling, walls single-handedly with clumsy and amateurish help from me. The result was a functional and comfortable cottage that gave us many years of fun and joy, where peals of laughter and tiny tots running on the docks pervaded.

With his diverse interests, deep knowledge and easygoing manners, Rudy attracted and maintained many friends across continents, professions, industries and spectrums through decades. These relationships enriched our lives, and for which we are eternally grateful.

He told me on several occasions in the last 5 years, that he had a happy life, that he had no regrets, he had been to places and done things beyond his wildest childhood dreams. That is the note that I would like you to remember Rudy by.

For us who were classmates, friends, and playmates of Rudy for seven years in Wah Yan, his gregarious personality, irrepressible laugh and love of life were contagious. You were assured of a good time with Rudy: plenty of good conversations, interesting experiences, and his command of many subjects that he shared with us with generosity, humility, and good humor.

While he was modest enough not to claim to be know-it-all, his fields of knowledge reached far and wide with informed opinions from the German high command in the Second World War, Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, Japanese battleships, to aerodynamics of jet fighters, Glenn Gould's rendition of Bach's Goldberg Variations, human anatomy and how to handle benign prostate symptoms !

Far from being a cloistered polymath, Rudy was an active sportsman excelling in football, tennis, swimming and windsurfing. He even renovated his cottage by the lake with his own hands.

I knew Rudy since primary 4 in Tak Yan. We studied under a lady tutor ( whom he was quite impressed by the pyjamas that she wore during our lessons ! ) to prepare for the Wah Yan entrance exams, and spent many of our innocent days doing what boys 11 and 12 years old did...sometimes with much mischief ! We hunted for spent bullet shells at the British barracks near his home in Kowloon Tong, persuaded our tutor to treat us to the movies, rode bicycles at the weekend, and visited each other's homes to play endless card games with a picture of nude Marilyn Monroe hanging on the wall that my father put up ! Sixty years later, he still reminded me of that picture !

While we attended different classes in Wah Yan, we remained in constant contact. He was an exemplary student, a role model and a school prefect. Years later when he and his wife Philomena visited Hong Kong, we always got together and reminisced about our good old days attending concerts and roaming the streets of Hong Kong.

Rudy lived a full, active, rewarding life and was the envy of many of us. Wherever he is now, I am sure that he will be discussing with someone the merits between the German Pantzer tanks vs the Soviet T-34 . Our life is richer because of our friendship with Rudy.

Rudy and I grew up together since our childhood. His mother was my father's elder sister. So we actually first degree cousins.

Since our childhood days, we were very much indulged in the Rediffusion spy series "A-13" (A 字13 號). We used to love the theme opening march. It was not until Rudy informed me that the opening march which we loved so much was actually "The Soldiers Chorus" from Act IV of Faust. That March still remains one of my favourite piece of music.

As we grew older, we found ourselves both were war history fanatics. We discussed the battles of World War II. While I am indulged on the side of the Germans and Japanese, I think Rudy was very much inclined on the side of Russia. We discussed how the German 6th Army could have been saved by Manstein and Paulus had they elected to disobey Hitler's Orders forbidding them to retreat one inch. How the Germans could have pushed the allied army back into the English Channel if they had deployed the Panzer Reserves right on D Day with a massive counter attack within 24 hours of the Landing. By the 6th June, 1944, the German Army was still an undefeated army and still had considerable fighting power.

We also discussed how the Japanese could have avoided defeat at the Battle of Midway had Admiral Nagumo made a different decision and Admiral Spruence made his vital decision at the peak of the battle.

Rudy and I also shared our family sorrows together. The tragic death of our Uncle John, the death of my father, that is, Rudy's Tai Kau Foo, the tragic death of Rudy's mother, my Tai Koo Ma and finally the demise of his sister Betty.

The only joy of Rudy's passing is that he is in a better place reunited with his parents and beloved sister Betty.

May he Rest in the Peace of Our Lord.

Best Regards & God Bless, Jimmy, (James Li, 李立本). 18th January, 2024 at 4:01pm Hong Kong time.

I just thought of an incident when Rudy tried to test my knowledge about the Japanese Combined Fleet during the Pacific War. He wrote in one of his E Mails
"What were the names of the Japanese Aircraft Carriers that took part in the raid against Pearl Harbour on 7th December, 1941".

I replied 'Akagi (Red Castle), Kaga (Increasing Joy), Hiryu (Flying Dragon), Soryu (Blue Dragon), Shokaku (Peaceful Crane) and Zuikaku (Flying Crane)".

Best Regards & God Bless, Jimmy, (James Li), 18th January, 2014 at 5:30pm Hong Kong time.