Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1991

Citations Dr. Edwin H.C. Tao, D.Eng. Dr. Edwin H.C. Tao is typical o f industrialists in Hong Kong, who, having come from the mainland, went on to receive their education in the West before launching into successful careers here. And yet Dr. Tao is a unique case in terms o f his personal achieve­ ments and his commitment to the community. He was born in Beijing, and first went to school there. The Sino-Japanese War soon broke out and he was forced to con tinue his education in the southern part o f China. He went to college, first in Shanghai, at St. John's University, and later in Kunming, at the National Southwest Asso ciated Universities. Among other things, St. John's was known for its excellent English standard, something Dr. Tao was later to put to good use. As the Japanese made an inroad into the coastal region in the south, Dr. Tao moved to Kunming. While keeping up with his study in engineering, Dr. Tao started a humble business, as it were, when he and two other college friends obtained some kind o f franchise to supply subtitles for English films at a local cinema in Kunming. The extra income certainly made their life during the war slightly more tolerable. He has, in fact, since kept up his interest in languages. He is well versed in several Chinese dialects, including Putonghua, Shanghainese and the Yunnan dialect, not to mention Cantonese, which, from what I can deter­ mine, he speaks with hardly any accent at all. His knowledge o f foreign languages is also considerable. He is quite at home in English —and occasionally offers advanced proficiency courses for his staff. He has also spent a number o f years studying French. But before he graduated, the situation further deteriorated and he went on to jo in the m ilitary service and taught in an engineering corp training school. Again, it was a straightforward job, fo r officer trainees at the school hardly had any know l edge about machines. After the war, he went back to college and obtained a degree in engineering from Tsing Hua University. For his further studies, Dr. Tao chose the United States but he had yet to spend another year fo r his second honours degree from Rose-hulman Institute o f Technology. Dr. Tao's master's degree was from Yale University and he also managed to gain some practical training before returning to Hong Kong in 1952. I f the story sounds rather involved, it is pre cisely the kind o f experience many Chinese intellectuals had to go through at that time. I f Dr. Tao's early years have been turbulent ones, his engi neering career since the fifties is marked by steady progress as well as many achievements and increasing involvement in the improvement o f Hong Kong's engineering industry and tertiary education. He served as engineering director o f several engineering com panies before being appointed general manager and managing director o f American Engineering Corp. In 1983, he began his career in consultancy and served as senior manager of Ryoden Engineering Co. Ltd. Currently, he is director o f Rankin & H ill (HK) Ltd., which is a full-capability international engineering consultancy firm with 25 offices located in various parts of the world. As a successful engineer, Dr. Tao was a former president of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers and the Hong Kong Engineering Society as well as senior or honorary fellow o f various local, American and UK engineering bodies, including the Chartered Institute o f Building Services Engineers, 42ND CONGREGATION 2