“THEY don’t make ‘em like they used to” (CitizenNades, Sept 28) refers. Our Rennie Martin was Vincent Fernandez, St John’s hockey coach extraordinaire. His sacrifices will be remembered and cherished by students who were fortunate to be under his guidance.

A few of us paid him a visit in his home in Bangsar a few weeks back and we were full of admiration for his zest for life even though he had his stomach removed a few years back due to cancer.

He was only too happy to reminisce about the good old days and the topic of discussion eventually moved to what Nades covered in his article. The loss of an era of dedicated and sacrificing teachers who were well aware that they were moulding future generations and who had the foresight to know that to be successful in life, students would need to be trained to be well-rounded individuals via the classroom and on the playing fields.

We all long for the return of the good old days.

Ron Pickering
Hongkong

Source: The Sun – September 30, 2009