Bulletin Number Four 1984

P R O F ILE S Dr. HO Kam-fai D r. HO K am -fai Director, Department o f Extramural Studies Dr. K.F. Ho, the new Director o f the Department o f Extramural Studies, is a person who makes light o f his many achievements - associal worker, asacademic, as administrator and as an Unofficial Member o f the Legislative Council. He gives people the impression that he had never aspired to the kind o f success which he now enjoys and that fate has been very kind in putting him in the right place at the right time. Those people who know him better also know that his reputation is well deserved. A wonderfully public spirited person, his concern for the individual in adversity led him into social work as a professional career in 1958 and six years later into the teaching o f Social Work as an academic subject at United College. He set up the Department o f Social Work at the University in 1964 and was Head o f Department at United College un til 1978. From 1967 to 1983 ， he also served two terms as Chairman o f the Board o f Studies in Social Work and in 1984 was appointed to the rank o f Reader. Dr. Ho's contribution to the Department and to the field o f social work in Hong Kong is a matter o f public record. During a career which has spanned twenty-six years, his professional views on a host o f issues have guided or influenced the discussion o f major social work problems and policies in the Department, in Government Commit tees and in voluntary agencies. Running parallel to Dr. Ho's academic career have been his many and various community service responsibilities which he has always undertaken w ith great generosity o f spirit. Aside from having been an Unofficial Member o f the Legislative Council since 1978, and reappointed to the position by the Governor three times, Dr. Ho has served on no less than twenty-four social service and government committees, commissions, councils, working parties and special groups. In between meetings at the Legislative Council Chamber and the Department o f Social Work, in between speaking engagements in Hong Kong and at international conferences elsewhere, he has managed to keep up his research and publi­ cation efforts. His more recent publications include ‘Social Accommodation o f Politics: The Case o f the Young Hong Kong Workers' (Co-author: Dr. S.K. Lau) which appeared in the Journal o f Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, ‘Organizing Participatory Urban Services: The Mutual Aid Committees in Hong Kong' (Co-authors: Dr. H.C. Kuan and Dr. S.K. Lau) which was published by the Institute o f Social Studies, and 'Hong Kong's Settlement for Its TeemingM illions' which was amajor paper in the summer 1984 issue o f the Journal o f International & Comparative Social Welfare. Dr. Ho's curriculum vitae is a very long one because there are so many outstanding achievements in his career. But what the number o f committees and civic honours —he is an Officer o f the British Empire and a Justice o f the Peace - does not reveal is the fact that he is in essence a very humble person who has a very warm personality and boundless energy. Always jovial and approachable, his easy-going manners and ready smile are great assets to him in his professional life . He is a social worker who relates easily to his clients and they to him. Indeed his most endearing quality is that he would speak to the flower girl in the same tone and w ith the same degree o f respect as he would to the Governor. Easy-going manners, however, should not be taken to indicate an easy-going nature where work is concerned because in matters o f true importance, he is meticulous, thorough and demanding. In spite o f the piles and piles o f papers and documents on his desk, in spite o f the many calls on his time, no one has ever complained that Dr. Ho Kam-fai has not read his brief. For Dr. Ho, concern for the little man has been a life-long passion. Concern for the wider issues in life w ith which he has to deal everyday was learned through books, through experience and through PROFILES 23