Family donate William Leslie Ko’s work to NTU

The life’s work of William Leslie Ko (柯威霖), a great-grandson of Canadian missionary George Leslie Mackay, was given to the National Taiwan University (NTU) Library at a ceremony on Monday.

NTU plans to exhibit the collection donated by Ko’s family, including his scientific papers and journal publications, research materials and files from when he worked at NASA, personal manuscripts and notebooks, and the original draft of his doctoral thesis, university officials said.

The collection also includes Ko’s sketches, drawings and watercolor paintings, as well as his upright piano and the furniture that surrounded it.

Ko was the grandson of Bella Catherine Mackay, the second daughter of George Leslie Mackay. He was born in thenTaipei County’s Tamsui District (淡水) on May 27, 1927, and began his undergraduate studies at NTU in 1946, majoring in mechanical engineering.

After he graduated in 1950, Ko worked for the Taiwan Railways Administration as a train driver and taught at Tamkang Senior High School.

Ko then headed to the US and became the first Taiwanese to obtain a master’s and doctorate in aerospace engineering at the California Institute of Technology.

He worked at NASA from 1977 to 2018, becoming the longest-serving scientist at the agency, and was awarded its Distinguished Service Medal in 2015.

Ko passed away in the US in 2022 at the age of 95.

The collection of his work is to be curated and archived, after which NTU is to collaborate with other museums to present an exhibition of Ko’s original work, manuscripts, scientific publications and art, NTU Library director Chen Kuang-hua (陳光華) said.

NTU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering is creating its own museum, and would like to have Ko’s collection on display there, NTU College of Engineering dean Chiang Mao-hsiung (江茂雄) said.

Also in attendance at the ceremony was Wang Yi-ching (王意晴), the director of a foundation for the cultural promotion of Seth Mackay Ko (柯設偕), George Leslie Mackay’s grandson.

Wang donated books that had belonged Seth Mackay Ko to the NTU Library.

The books included an original edition of From Far Formosa (福爾摩沙紀事：馬偕台灣回憶錄) by George Leslie Mackay which was published in 1895. It contains handwritten notes and references by the author, and is of great historic importance.

George Leslie Mackay, a physician, arrived in what is now called Tamsui in 1872. He lived in Taiwan until his death in 1901, by which time he had become renowned for his selfless dedication to Taiwan.