KARACHI: Teachers, colleagues and students of Margery Rehman, who passed away on Tuesday after a brief illness, paid rich tributes to the Scottish woman from Glasgow, who came to Pakistan to make it her home.

`Though both of us were with the Karachi Grammar School, I knew Margery from before 1970, when she joined the school, as our husbands were good friends. She was a wonderful human being and fun to be with, too. She was quite witty and had a great sense of humour,` said Stella Jafri, former headmistress of KGS kindergarten section.

`At KGS, she taught history to A-Level students, the British constitution was one of her specialities. She also directed dramasand plays in which A-Level students took part,` she said.

Durainow Chishty-Mujahid, headmistress of KGS College Section, said she found MrsRehman a remarkable history teacher who also enjoyed a good rapport with her students. `She was a great student counsellor.

But what I`ll say was the greatest thing about her was her ability to fit in as she hailed from Glasgow and happily made Pakistan her home. It couldn`t have been easy but she adjusted very well and raised her children here, too.

Dawn`s senior staffer Farida M.

Said, another former teacher of English Literature at KGS, who kept in touch with Mrs Rehman till the end, added to that by pointing out that she was, in fact, the pioneer student counsellorin Pakistan. `People during the 1970s and 1980s weren`t really familiar with this concept of counselling. She was the first school counsellor, advising students about foreign universities according to their potential. Shemaintained contacts with top universities in the US, including Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

`A sophisticated intellectual, she was immensely fond of Western classical music and opera.Infact she ran the Opera Society at the Sind Club. She was a trained musician herself and played the cello. And she educated me about art and music.

When once I came across a French epigraph in a novel that I was reading I remember taking it to a French teacher at KGS to explain what it meant to me but she didn`t know what it was herself. But Margery saw it and explained that it was actually mediaeval French so not that easily decipherable by modern French people. Af ter that, every time I had a problem I went to her. Fluent in French, German, Latin, she was my mentor,` Ms Said said.`Margery was just 35 when her husband, Masih ur Rehman, who was chief engineer with the Karachi Port Trust, suddenly passed away at 46. That`s when in search of a better livelihood, she left teaching to join Unilever, where she worked as director, personnel.

`For the Dawn Media Group it is remarkable to note that Margery had taught our, CEO Hameed Haroon, editor of our evening newspaper Star Kamal Majidullah and Sherry Rehman and Saguib Hanif, two former editors of our monthly magazine the Herald. She also taught Arif Mahmood, head of White Star, the photographers` agency attached with Dawn,` she said.

Well-known photographer Arif Mahmood said that besides having taught him history at school, Mrs Rehman also worked withhim on his book Thar. `She loved Tharparkar and worked with me on the book from 2004 to 2005. As a former teacher, she could have forced her opinion on several matters but she didn`t interfere and respected me for my work, which I appreciated very much, he said.

Meanwhile, PPP leader Sherry Rehman said Mrs Rehman`s passing was like the passing of an era. `Mrs Rehman was one of the finest teachers we had the good fortune to study with. But more importantly, she was the finest counsellor we had for academic advice and post A-Level studies.

She tutored and counselled an entire generation of Grammarians. I can`t imagine the faculty room without her gentle soft Scottish burr and her easy grace. May she rest in peace,` she said.