Alumni leader dies in Thai air crash

Tawat Wichaidit, president of the 450-member Wisconsin Alumni Association Club of Thailand, died with his wife, Waraporn, in the Dec. 11 jet crash near Surat Thani, Thailand.

Thai Airways Flight TG261 crashed 330 miles southwest of Bangkok after attempting to land for the third time in bad weather resulting from Typhoon Jill. More than 100 people died in the crash; about 45 survived.

Tawat was the recipient of the Wisconsin Alumni Associationís 1993 Distinguished Alumni Award.

“Dr. Tawat founded the university’s strongest international alumni chapter in 1990, following our first visit to Bangkok with former Chancellor Donna Shalala,” said Gayle Langer, WAA executive director. Tawat hosted a dinner for Gov. Tommy Thompson’s trade mission to Bangkok in fall 1997. In 1995, he facilitated meetings between UW–Madison Chancellor David Ward and educators at prominent Thai universities, leading to a number of important, cross-disciplinary agreements.

“We are deeply saddened by the deaths of Dr. Tawat and his wife, Waraporn, and send our condolences to their family and friends,” Ward said. “Dr. Tawat was a distinguished member of our community of international alumni and a strong supporter of higher education. All those who knew him and his wife are mourning their loss.”

The prominent UW alumnus also was a key member of Thai parliament and former governor of his country’s provincial waterworks authority. “As secretary-general to the Thai prime minister at the time, he brought together leaders of government, business, and education to further connections between Wisconsin and Thailand,” Langer said.

In 1992, he visited UW–Madison at Homecoming to present the university with a $20,000 check for future student scholarships ó the largest contribution ever made by an alumni club.

In 1993, his son, Obby, enrolled at UW–Madison as a graduate student – the same year Tawat received the university’s prestigious Distinguished Alumni Award.

Tawat earned three degrees at UW–Madison in two years, including masterís degrees in public policy and administration and political science, and a doctorate in political science.

Members of the Wisconsin Alumni Association board, who met with Tawat on several occasions, recall him as a powerful orator and supporter of higher education.

“If I have a right to dream,” Tawat said at Homecoming in 1992, “I’d like to be a student again in Madison. This is not only my second home. It is the place where I learned everything.”

Tawat and his wife are survived by their two sons, Obby and Oat.