N K YONG (1927 – 2021)

Surgeon and wine writer Dr YONG Nen Khiong – better known as N K Yong – passed away 15 March 2021. He was 94.

Yong was wine columnist for Singapore’s Business Times for 30 years from 1988 to 2018.

In 1965, Dr Yong pioneered the first open-heart surgery in Singapore. The following year,  he was appointed foundation professor of surgery and chairman of department of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur.

Dr Yong returned to Singapore in 1976 and ran a private surgical practice until he retired in 2004.