Former top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow dies, aged 83

Singapore

FORMER top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow, who worked closely with Singapore's founding leaders and was known for being outspoken, died peacefully on Thursday morning, his family said. He was 83.

His family told The Straits Times that he had been in ill health for four and a half years.

Mr Ngiam spent 40 years in the apex Singapore Administrative Service before retiring in 1999 at age 62.

He stumbled onto his career by a twist of fate. A first-generation Singaporean born to a court interpreter and washerwoman from Hainan, he lost his father at age nine to tuberculosis.

After completing his schooling at Serangoon English and St Andrew's Secondary, he applied for a job as a postal clerk.

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But a medical check-up showed he had contracted early-stage tuberculosis and was unfit for work. So he continued studying and won an open bursary to the University of Malaya, where he achieved first-class honours in economics. It paved the way for him to join the Economic Development Board (EDB) in 19…