Encounters with worthy men from 50 years ago

IN 1969, I worked as a service adviser in Tan Chong and Sons Motor Co Sdn Bhd. The workshop was just a large shed behind its head office cum showroom in Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, before it was relocated next to the newly completed Tan Chong assembly plant in Segambut, KL.

Instead of renting a room nearby, I slept in the workshop on a canvas bed at night. One day after office hours, I noticed a man taking a good look around at the structure of the workshop. I approached him and he politely declined my help. I later learned that the man was one of the two brothers who had founded the Tan Chong automobile business. He was none other than Tan Sri Datuk Tan Kim Hor, who died in 2016 at the age of 92.