I recently returned from a small ceremony in the British Embassy to honor a friend of mine for a thesis that he wrote almost four decades ago. The interesting thing about the ceremony was that it was to honor a Canadian who had written this doctoral work working then as a Hong Kong student in England. How all this came about is a story in itself..
Gerald had come to England as a student from Hong Kong to work on a doctoral program. He was a student in Leeds University in 1966 when he selected a topic to work on for his thesis which was financed on a contract from the Ministry of Defence. He finished his work in the contracted period of three years, submitted his work, was awarded his phD and went to a successful career in Intelsat. A few years ago he retired from Intelsat and took up Canadian citizenship. One day a friend of his from the Intelsat days, Phil was visiting him for dinner who idly asked what Gerald had written as his thesis some four decades ago. Gerald was able to locate the thesis and showed it to his friend. Phil took a long look at it and said that in his view this was a seminal piece of work and that it had probably been used by the UK navy for communication with their nuclear submarines and was a key piece of the deterrent during the days of the cold war. He felt that the work needed to be recognized and set about pursuing the bureacracy in UK. Gerald, of course, knew nothing about what use his thesis had been put to in all those years since 1969 and was delighted to learn that his work may have contributed in no small measure for maintaining the peace during the cold war.
After four years of determined pursuit, the UK Ministry of defence finally acknowledged the author of the work and its contribution to nuclear deterrence. Apparently the theoritical work Gerald did was on low frequency communications which could penetrate the oceans and connect the headquaters in London with the submerged nuclear submarines without their having to surface.The embassy in Washington arranged a function to give a citation to Gerald for his work at a small dignified ceremony attended by a small group of family and friends.
The really interesting thing about this story is how a friend selflessly chose to pursue this over a period of four years, the willingness of the UK Ministry of defence to acknowledge a long forgotten contribution of a foreign student, and the grace of the Embassy in Washington in organizing this ceremony. What loyalty, what honor and what grace.
It is rare for a country to honor contributions of its own citizens, it is rarer still for them to seek out and honor those who come from other countries.
During his acceptance speech, Gerald added another twist to this unusual story: " The contract of the University for this work was for three years but I still needed another few months to complete it. So I went to the Ministry of defence to ask for an extension but they flatly refused. I was a poor student and did not know how I would complete the work. But then I noticed that I had been paying unemployment insurance during the past few years and so I enquired if I was eligible for unemployment compensation. I was delighted to learn that I was. So I finished the work only because I was on the dole!"
Gerald had come to England as a student from Hong Kong to work on a doctoral program. He was a student in Leeds University in 1966 when he selected a topic to work on for his thesis which was financed on a contract from the Ministry of Defence. He finished his work in the contracted period of three years, submitted his work, was awarded his phD and went to a successful career in Intelsat. A few years ago he retired from Intelsat and took up Canadian citizenship. One day a friend of his from the Intelsat days, Phil was visiting him for dinner who idly asked what Gerald had written as his thesis some four decades ago. Gerald was able to locate the thesis and showed it to his friend. Phil took a long look at it and said that in his view this was a seminal piece of work and that it had probably been used by the UK navy for communication with their nuclear submarines and was a key piece of the deterrent during the days of the cold war. He felt that the work needed to be recognized and set about pursuing the bureacracy in UK. Gerald, of course, knew nothing about what use his thesis had been put to in all those years since 1969 and was delighted to learn that his work may have contributed in no small measure for maintaining the peace during the cold war.
After four years of determined pursuit, the UK Ministry of defence finally acknowledged the author of the work and its contribution to nuclear deterrence. Apparently the theoritical work Gerald did was on low frequency communications which could penetrate the oceans and connect the headquaters in London with the submerged nuclear submarines without their having to surface.The embassy in Washington arranged a function to give a citation to Gerald for his work at a small dignified ceremony attended by a small group of family and friends.
The really interesting thing about this story is how a friend selflessly chose to pursue this over a period of four years, the willingness of the UK Ministry of defence to acknowledge a long forgotten contribution of a foreign student, and the grace of the Embassy in Washington in organizing this ceremony. What loyalty, what honor and what grace.
It is rare for a country to honor contributions of its own citizens, it is rarer still for them to seek out and honor those who come from other countries.
During his acceptance speech, Gerald added another twist to this unusual story: " The contract of the University for this work was for three years but I still needed another few months to complete it. So I went to the Ministry of defence to ask for an extension but they flatly refused. I was a poor student and did not know how I would complete the work. But then I noticed that I had been paying unemployment insurance during the past few years and so I enquired if I was eligible for unemployment compensation. I was delighted to learn that I was. So I finished the work only because I was on the dole!"
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