98th Annual General Meeting of the Sri Sumangala College Old Boys’ Association will be held on Saturday, September 05, 2020, at the college auditorium at 8.30 am. All members are welcome!

පානදුර ශ්‍රී සුමංගල විද්‍යාලයීය ආදී ශිෂ්‍ය සංගමයේ 98වන වාර්ෂික මහා සභාව 2020 සැප්තැම්බර් මස 05 වන සෙනසුරාදා උදැසන 8.30ට විද්‍යාලයීය ශ්‍රවනාගාරයේදී පැවැත්වේ. සියලු ආදී ශිෂ්‍ය සාමාජිකයන්ට ආරාධනා!

Don Gunasena Athukorala is an accomplished professional engineer who contributed to bringing modern civil engineering to its current high standards in Sri Lanka. This is a tribute to an Old Boy of Sri Sumangala who is 96 years old this year and is a veteran engineer with more than 45 years’ service to our civil engineering and construction industry.

Early life

Born in Aruggoda, Panadura to Don Hendrik Athukorala, a director of P. D. Pedoris Appuhamy & Company and Dona Catherina Athukorala in May 1924, Don Gunasena joined Sri Sumangala from St John’s College in the mid 1930s.  Don Gunasena says his parents were concerned he was learning mostly in English at St John’s College and wanted him to have a good knowledge of Sinhalese and transferred him to Sri Sumangala.  There he was also able to learn Buddhism too.

Upon completion of his studies at Sri Sumangala, Don Gunasena joined the Ceylon Technical College, the premier institution for technical and engineering studies those days. The Ceylon Technical College was part of the Ceylon University College with an affiliation to the University of London, where students got formal education and training in Sri Lanka and had to go to England to gain practical training and the degree. After completing his formal studies, Don Gunasena gained practical hand on work experience in the UK and became a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the professional engineering body in the UK. Then he came back to Sri Lanka and joined the Department of Industries as an engineer, and worked there until 1961.

Don Gunasena says;

“My first job was as a Civil Engineer at Willment Brothers in Middlesex for a year that was followed by a period with Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners in London for about two years.  I was the only Sri Lankan working in those companies at the time.  This practical experience enabled me to obtain membership in the Institution of Civil Engineers of the UK in 1955.  I was keen to return to Sri Lanka as soon as I obtained my Fellowship and travelled back home again by ship.

After several years working in Sri Lanka, I had to stop paying the Institution’s membership fees in Pounds Sterling due to foreign exchange controls imposed by our Government.”

State Engineering Corporation (SEC)

In 1962, A.N.S. Kulasinghe, founding Chairman of the SEC was seeking reputed engineers to start State Engineering Corporation (SEC). Don Gunasena was selected to become his right hand man as Deputy General Manager while Dr.Kulasinghe held the General Manager and Chairman positions. Don Gunasena was made responsible for the construction, planning, research, and other divisions.

Some of the notable constructions by the SEC were the Ceylon Steel Corporation, Thulhiriya Textile Mills, Colombo Planetarium, Kalutara Chaitya, Ceylon Tyre Corporation in Kelaniya, Ceylon Sugar Corporation to name a few. Don Gunasena and his team were the pioneers that introduced new engineering technologies to the country at the time. The pre -cast concrete was one of the latest technologies at that time which supported faster and reliable construction.

From 1977 to1979 Don Gunasena was the chairman of the State Engineering Corporation and led several projects including the construction of passenger bridges, many housing construction projects under the “Gam Udawa” program, several hospital buildings etc.

Mahaweli Headworks Division

In 1980, Don Gunasena joined the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka as the founding Director of its newly formed Headworks Division, responsible for the administration, operation, and maintenance of all completed structures like the Polgolla Dam and Bowetenna tunnel etc.

Don Gunasena had to start the division with four people and had met several challenges and problems to bring Mahaweli maintenance processes to their current standard.

Engineer S. Karunaratne who was the Deputy Director of the Headworks division at that time said;

“The structures we undertook needed a heavy facelift and we had to prepare a detailed status report and action to be taken.  It took several months to clear the structures and introduce maintenance processes”

Don Gunasena was also keen on solving environmental problems encountered during his time. In particular, ‘Salvenia’ plants had spread in the Maduru Oya reservoir and ‘Nidikumba’ plants had spread in the upper catchment areas of the Victoria Reservoir periphery and Blue-green algae had formed on the waterbed of Kothmale Reservoir.  He led teams of people to bring long-term solutions to these environmental concerns.

Retired life

Don Gunasena retired from Mahaweli Authority in 1995, and in 1999 migrated to Sydney Australia where he lives with his wife Irangani and grown up children and grandchildren. In the early days in Australia, he joined the University of the Third Age (U3A), an international education and development program for people in retirement.

He said;

“I studied a few short computer courses to keep my mind engaged and also helped a few students in the Hornsby area with computer aided design.  I always believed that you must use your mind or be prepared to lose it”.

In 2011 Don Gunasena published a book ‘Buddhas’ Principle of Relativity’. It is based on his understanding and interpretation of ‘Paticcasamuppada.’ Professor Lakshman Jayatileke, former Vice-Chancellor of the Moratuwa University says;

“Don Gunasena was also practicing mindfulness. That’s how he came to write his book “Buddha’s Principle of Relativity: Mind-Body Stress”. He was very interested in the subject and we had a lot of discussion about that subject.”

“It is a very practical book. I have read it and I know he has written it with his experience. I believe he has written it also to his audience in Australia. There are Sri Lankan people as well as people in other religions who are interested in Buddhist practices.”

SSCOBA hopes the coming years bring even more happiness and health to our distinguished old boy Don Gunasena Athukorala.

We were delighted to be informed of the appointment of Sumangalian, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa, Prof. Kapila Perera as the new Secretary to the Ministry of Education by His Excellency the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

It gives us great pleasure to extend our heartiest congratulations and sincere best wishes. We are confident that your able leadership and guidance will be invaluable in steering the Sri Lankan education system to attain its goals.

Old Sumangalian Mr. Roshan Perera, Managing Director of Crystal Consumer Pvt Ltd, donated 500 face masks to the college. This high-quality 3PLY (Including filter PLY) face masks are manufactured at his factory in Panadura.

Face masks were handed over the Principal Lt. Colonel L. G. P. B. Liyangaskumbura on June 30, 2020, at the college. The President of the SSCOBA Mr. Mahesh Fonseka and Joint Secretaries Mr. Dinesh Ketipearachchi and Mr. Amila Nawalage have also attended the donation ceremony.

Mr. Roshan Perera who played cricket for the college is a Vice President of the Past Cricketers’ Association of Sri Sumangala College.

Thank you Mr. Roshan Perera for your generosity and loyalty to our alma mater. We wish you all the success!

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98th Annual General Meeting of SSCOBA has been postponed considering the pandemic conditions due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The new date of the AGM will be informed to all the members at the earliest, once the authorities switch on the green light to hold such an event. We have emailed all our members the progress report of the administrative year 2019/2020 and the audited financial statement of SSCOBA as of 31.12.2019.

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දැනට රටතුල පවතින නීතිමය තත්වය හමුවේ අප සංගමයේ 98වන වාර්ෂික මහා සභාව පැවැත්වීමට නොහැකි බව පසුගිය කාරක සභා රැස්වීමේදී තීරණය කල අතර, වාර්ෂික මහා සභාව පවත්වන දිනය පසුව දැනුම් දෙන තුරු 2019/2020 වසර තුල ආදී ශිෂ්‍ය සංගමය සිදු කල සේවාවන් හා 31.12.2019 දිනට විගණනය කල ගිණුම් වාර්තා සාමාජිකයන්හට විද්‍යුත් තැපෑල මඟින් යොමුකර ඇති බව මෙයින් දන්වා සිටිමු.

SSCOBA held its monthly Exco meeting yesterday, June 13, 2020, at the College Auditorium after the country’s lockdown period. The meeting was headed by our President Mr. Mahesh Fonseka.

This is the first meeting that our Patron, the new Principal of the College, Lt. Col. L. G. P. B. Liyangaskubura attended and he briefed the Exco about his findings, plans about the College and how he wants the OBA to play the major role in preparing and implementing the plan.

The meeting was attended by our Advisors, Past President Mr. Vijith Salgado, Past Joint Secretary Mr. Sarath Alwis, and Exco members.

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We implemented Virtual Class Rooms at our college and now it’s been successfully used by the college teachers & students for their education. We are so proud to contribute to implementing the same at Royal College Panadura.

We would like to thank Mr. Diluka Silva for coordinating this and getting us involved in this and our Principal Lt. Col. L. G. P. B. Liyangaskubura and Mr. Y. Yasarathne, Principal of Royal College Panadura for initiating this. We hope that this will take the friendship between two colleges to a new level.

Finally, we thank and appreciate the Old Boys’ Association of Royal College Panadura for recognizing our contribution.

ශ්‍රී සුමංගල විද්‍යාලයීය ආදී ශිෂ්‍ය සංගමයේ දායකත්වය තුලින් අප පාසැලේ ආරම්භ කර සාර්ථක ලෙස පවත්වාගෙන යන Virtual Class Rooms ක්‍රමය පානදුර රාජකීය විද්‍යාලයේ ආරම්භ කිරීමට අපගේ දායකත්වයන් ලබා දීමට හැකි වීම පිළිබඳව අප ඉතා සතුටු වෙමු.

මේ සඳහා අපගේ දායකත්වය ලබාගැනීමට සම්බන්ධීකරණය කල දිලූක සිල්වා මහතාටත්, අප පාසැලේ විදුහල්පති ලුතිනන් කර්නල් L. G. P. B. ලියන්ගස්කුඹුර මහතාටත්, පානදුර රාජකීය විද්‍යාලයේ විදුහල්පති Y. යසරත්න මහතාටත් ස්තූති වන්ත වන අතර පාසැල් දෙකෙහි සුහදත්වය වර්ධනය කර ගැනීම අප ආදී ශිෂ්‍ය සංගම් දෙකෙහිම අරමුණයි.

අපගේ දායකත්වය ඇගයූ පානදුර රාජකීය විද්‍යාලයේ ආදී ශිෂ්‍ය සංගමයටද අපගේ ප්‍රණාමය පුදකර සිටිමු.

පානදුර රාජකීය විද්‍යාලයේ ආදී ශිෂ්‍ය සංගමයේ Facebook සටහන / Facebook Post of the Old Boys’ Association of Royal College: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1165467427152674&set=a.113816112317816

Here is the video of our President Mr. Mahesh Fonseka addressing the media after the media conference held at the college regarding Virtual Class Rooms on June 02, 2020.

The Official Inauguration of Virtual Class Rooms at our Alma Mater held this morning. The ceremony was attended by the Principal, Lt. Col. L. G. P. B. Liyangaskumbura, Mr. Nalaka De Silva – Assistant Principal, Mrs. Nishanthi Karunathne – College ICT Teacher, Dr. M. A. Jagath Wansapala – Secretary of the School Development Society, Mr. Mahesh Fonseka – President of the Old Boys’ Association, Mr. Dinesh Ketipearachchi & Mr. Amila Nawalage – Join Secretaries of the Old Boys’ Association, Mr. Wasantha Weerakoone – Chief Operating Officer – Tech One Global (Pvt) Ltd, Mr. Manjula Wimaladasa – General Manager – Sanje (Pvt) Ltd, Mr. Angelo Fernando – Head of Sales – Sanje (Pvt) Ltd, Old Sumangalian Mr. Nirodha Gunawardena – Senior Consultant – Public Sector – Sanje (Pvt) Ltd, Vice Presidents of Old Boys’ Association Mr. Sampath Perera and Mr. Chamath Dias, and few more teachers, students, and media representatives.

This is the first step of the digital transformation projects taking place at the college carried out by the ICT & Digital subcommittee of SSCOBA headed by Vice Presidents Mr. Chamara Peiris and Mr. Sampath Perera. Once the Virtual Class Rooms are implemented for all grades in the college, SSCOBA will start on the School Management System, which will empower students, teachers, college administration as well as parents.

Photo courtesy of the Photographic Society of the College.

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