Roland Tay (; born 1947) is an

undertaker A funeral director, also known as an undertaker (British English) or mortician (American English), is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as w ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. He is known for helping the poor and families of murder victims by providing pro-bono funeral arrangements. Memorial services conducted by Tay include

Huang Na Huang Na () (26 September 199610 October 2004) was an eight-year-old Chinese national residing in Pasir Panjang, Singapore, who disappeared on 10 October 2004. Her mother, the police and the community conducted a three-week-long nationwide s ...

, Liu Hong Mei, and

Ah Meng Ah Meng (circa 18 June 1960 – 8 February 2008) (Chinese: 阿明) was a female Sumatran orangutan and a tourism icon of Singapore. Ah Meng was originally from Indonesia and was kept illegally in Singapore as a domestic pet before being rec ...

, a Singapore tourism icon.

Early life

Born in 1947 as the fourth of 10 children to a hawker in a coffee shop along Lavender Street, Tay began his working life as a coffee boy at his family's coffee shop. He helped the family's coffee shop business by serving coffee and tea to customers in Singapore Casket and learned about the funeral trade. When his father died, Tay converted the coffee shop into Casket Palace, which was subsequently bought over by Singapore Casket.

Career

In the subsequent years, Tay started several funeral companies including Tong Aik Undertaker and Direct Funeral Services. Tong Aik Undertaker is in charge of operating the Singapore Police Force's police hearse, and also has operated as Direct Funeral Services since 2000. In 2004, Tay with Direct Funeral Services conducted the pro-bono funeral of

, an eight-year-old girl who was murdered brutally in

Pasir Panjang Pasir Panjang is an area located at the southern part of Queenstown in Singapore. Kent Ridge Park is a topographical feature which runs adjacent to Pasir Panjang. History Pasir Panjang Road, which once hugged the coastline, was laid down a ...

, Singapore. This was followed by another pro-bono funeral in 2005 of 22-year-old Chinese national Liu Hong Mei, who was murdered and chopped into seven parts before being dumped in the

Kallang River The Kallang River (, ms, Sungei Kallang) is the longest river in Singapore, flowing for 10 kilometers. from the Lower Peirce Reservoir (originally named "Kallang River Reservoir") to the Kallang Basin. It originates in the planning ...

. The process of sewing the body parts back together took Roland Tay and his embalmers 7 hours. He also oversaw the funeral of Li Hong Yan, a 24-year-old village girl from

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

who drowned at

Sentosa Sentosa Island, known mononymously as Sentosa, and formerly ''Pulau Belakang Mati'', is an island located off the southern coast of Singapore's main island. The island is separated from the main island of Singapore by a channel of water, the K ...

. Tay reportedly collected around three hundred identity cards of deceased persons whom were without family, and for whom he conducted pro bono funeral services. One of Tay's more memorable cases is the pro bono funeral he provided for the primate tourism icon

of Singapore. In 2013, Tay brought his daughter Jenny Tay into the business, who subsequently helped him rebrand the undertaking firm after quitting her job at a marketing firm.

Personal life

In 2013, Tay and his wife, Sally Ho, filed and finalized their divorce in June. According to the court papers, the cumulated properties were estimated to be a total of about $20 million.

Notable pro bono cases

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tay, Roland 1947 births Living people Funeral directors People from Singapore