HE INSPIRED GENERATIONS
‘Mr. Singh’ moved through life with grace, patience and kindness, says longtime friend
Surrey high school teacher Suminder Singh was killed in a car crash Friday, leaving behind a grieving family and generations of students inspired by his patience and kindness
A Surrey teacher killed in a car crash was remembered as a gifted educator, a role model and a pillar of the community whose legacy extended far beyond the walls of Tamanawis Secondary, where he was head of the math department and a cricket coach.
Tributes and accolades for Suminder Singh, 55, poured in on Thanksgiving weekend after he died Friday when his SUV crashed into the rear of a tractor-trailer on Highway 15 near 32nd Avenue in Surrey.
“He was a mentor and a leader within the school, a father figure who would encourage students to be their best,” said Harman Pandher, a family friend who used to teach at Beaver Creek Elementary and had heard many former students spoke glowingly of “Mr. Singh.”
“He really got kids to reach their full potential and even beyond,” he said. “When people were considering schools, they’d choose Tamanawis because they say ‘Mr. Singh’s there and it’ll be good.’ ”
A muscular man with the mind of a mathematician and the soul of a musician, Singh moved through life with grace, patience and kindness, said longtime friend Baltej Singh Dhillon. “He was a giant of a man,” said Dhillon. “He was witty, very sharp in his jokes, and he was compassionate and he was kind. He would make time for others even to his own disadvantage.”
For years, Singh had devoted many hours on the weekends to playing religious hymns at temples and community events with Dhillon, an RCMP inspector, and Dhillon’s daughter. It was important work for Singh because it was a way to serve the community and help youth connect with their faith, said Dhillon.
Wake Up Surrey, a grassroots anti-gang group that formed after the shooting death of two teenage kids in June, wrote a tribute for Singh on Facebook, calling him a “local hero.” Dhillon said Singh didn’t work with Wake Up Surrey directly, but his work every day was about engaging kids, listening to them, and supporting them so they didn’t fall through the cracks.
“What Suminder did over and over again was bring light to the young men and women who came into his classroom,” he said. “I have no doubt that over the years he had adjusted the trajectory of many of the kids that came to him and saved them from falling prey to darkness.”
Former student Sukhmeet Singh Sachal is organizing a vigil Saturday outside Tamanawis Secondary for current and past students. Hundreds are expected to attend.
“As soon as I found out, I was in shock and disbelief,” said Sachal, who graduated from Tamanawis in 2012 and was in an AP calculus class taught by Singh. “I thought this was the best way to commemorate him — to bring everyone together where he spent all his years teaching students.”
Sachal has also launched a GoFundMe page to raise funds for the Mr. Singh Legacy Award that will give $1,000 annually to a graduating student who embodies Singh and his values.
Singh’s family, including wife Kirpaul Kaur, the principal at Newton Elementary, and their three children ranging in age from 19 to 23, are coping as well as they can under the circumstances, said friends, comforted by their faith and bolstered by the support of the Sikh community and teaching community.
The family plans to hold a private funeral service on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Singh’s former and current students are invited to a larger service at 3 p.m. at the Sukh Sagar gurdwara in New Westminster.
Doug Strachan, spokesman for the Surrey school district, said school and district counsellors will be available Tuesday to support staff and students.
Pandher, whose son Seva was tutored by Singh this summer in preparation for entering Grade 9 at Tamanawis, said Singh’s advice to his son, in addition to math lessons, was “to read more, expand his vocabulary” and to understand and look at the world “in terms of the math he sees all around him.”
Singh was always more than a math teacher, he said. "He was always a bigger-level teacher than just solving equations.
“Math was one thing, but it always went back to students saying they never had such a wise teacher.”
He really got kids to reach their full potential and even beyond.”
Harman Pandher