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Wildlife consultant Subaraj Rajathurai so loved nature that he and his wife named their two sons after species of birds - Serin, 24, and Saker, 19.
And in a nod to his passion, dozens from the nature community were clad in green for his funeral on Wednesday, bidding farewell to a giant of a man who died the way he lived - in peace.
The 56-year-old died of a heart attack during a nap on Tuesday afternoon.
"The community will have to band together. They know what Subaraj was fighting for, and they will continue to fight for him," his wife, Madam Shamla Subaraj, 54, said at the funeral. She said that although her late husband had a history of heart problems and had stents placed in his heart, his death took the family by surprise.
He was discharged from hospital on Monday. On Tuesday afternoon, Madam Shamla was preparing lunch when she tried to rouse him, only to discover he was gone.
"Subaraj was the pioneer of nature outreach and conservation activism in Singapore. He has left a huge footprint here and he will be sorely missed," said Mr Tony O'Dempsey, a member of the Nature Society (Singapore), who was at Mr Subaraj's funeral.
The Straits Times
