Professor Thanpuying Poonsapaya Napawongs Na Ayutthaya passed away yesterday morning at the age of 105 at Chulalongkorn Hospital due to complications from a stroke she had suffered about three years ago.
A pioneer in education in Thailand, Thanpuying Poonsapaya helped establish the Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University (CU) in 1957 and later headed the faculty as the university’s first female dean.
She received many honours during her lifetime, including the Knight Grand Commander (Second Class, higher grade) of the Most Illustrious Order of Chula Chom Klao from His Majesty the King, and the Thai government’s highest award as the National Senior Achievement Honoree in 2009.
Thanpuying Poonsapaya also founded the first chapter of the international Zonta Club Thailand, an organisation empowering women, and became its charter president in 1950.
The daughter of a German businessman, Hans Geyer, and Jiam Graiyong, a Thai lady-in-waiting for the queen during the reign of King Rama V, Thanpuying Poonsapaya graduated from CU before travelling to the United States on a scholarship shortly before the outbreak of World War II. She then joined the Seri Thai resistance movement making radio broadcasts in Thai from San Francisco.
Thanpuying Poonsapaya married ML Chirayu Napawongs, a CU Faculty of Arts dean. Together, the couple worked for many charitable causes until ML Chirayu’s death in 2007.
On her 96th birthday in 2006, she donated her house and land on Sukhumvit Soi 101/1 to Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, to convert it into a museum which opened in 2009. Funeral rites will begin at Wat Benjamabopit today at 5pm.