Your Excellencies, honored guests, friends and family,
There are many people in this room to whom I owe a debt of gratitude: members of the Board, Administrative staffs, volunteers and everyone who are here to honor the memory of my father and give their support to the Institute and to me, personally. I would like particularly to take this opportunity to extend my appreciation to Under-Secretary- General, Mr. Kio Akasaka, and Mr. Amir Dossal for their partnerships with this luncheon and helping in so many ways to mark this centennial celebration a success.  For Mr. Akasaka and our friends at DPI, first in Myanmar when we celebrated on the date of my father’s birth on January 22 and now here for their cooperation and support to mark this year a memorable one. 
The year has not ended yet!  We will be asking for your kind partnership and assistance in coming months.
We are invited to have a celebration in India in collaboration with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).   The celebration will be in New Delhi, 14 November, which is the birth date of Prime Minister J. Nehru. The date is dedicated as Children’s Day in India, which is so appropriate for their love of children, when doves will be released! What a beautiful sight!  It was Panditji Nehru who initiated the International Cooperation year in that we are hoping to hold an event to promote that concept on that day: International Cooperation for our environment!  So we also hope to partner with UNIC in New Delhi.
To Amir Dossal, Executive Director of the UN Office for Partnerships [UNOP].  UNOP serves as a gateway for partnership opportunities with the United Nations family and Private Sector, Foundations and Civil Society to ensure that the socioeconomic needs of the underprivileged are not forgotten, I thank you for your friendship and guidance in planning this luncheon, and also our colleagues at UNOP, my big  thank you for all your assistance all along.
I would also like to extend my deep appreciation to Mr. Robert Gray for those wonderful stamps.  They are not only aesthetically beautiful but are also so fulfilling for me, that my father’s life could be honored worldwide. 
I could not express enough how deeply moved I am to have this opportunity to celebrate this occasion with all of you and to give me an opportunity to share my thoughts and reflect on how I remember my father.
June Bingham, in “U Thant: The Search for Peace,” wrote,
“At five minutes after midnight, on Friday January 22, 1909, a man-child was born in Pantanaw in the Delta, a region so flat that its horizons, like those of the ocean, blend imperceptibly into the sky”. 
In accordance with a custom of giving names according to the day of the week the baby is born, that baby boy, was given the name Maung Thant, suitable for a Friday birth. Thant was his only name and Maung is roughly equivalent to Mister. Only in later life, U was prefaced to a man’s name and Daw to a woman’s name. For a young girl it is prefaced by Ma.
That Maung Thant, later became U Thant (not “you” Thant or Mr. U Thant), whose life we are celebrating today. I am particularly thankful that you all could join me to commemorate the occasion in this building - the United Nations - that symbolizes the peace, justice and freedom that my father had advocated throughout his life.  
My father was brought up by a widowed mother. His father died when he was 14 leaving his mother with 4 sons, ages 7 to 14. She was strong, very disciplined, independent and religious.  She believed in education and pushed her sons to excel in school and put them through college. They all achieved what she had hoped for them, becoming well educated and responsible individuals.  My father was dedicated to his mother. All of her sons were! With this experience in his early life, my father was very respectful of women, and never took them for granted!  How fortunate for his wife and daughter!  He was disciplined with his thoughts, words and actions. He was a father who taught you by examples, not by lectures! Not a “do as I say” but “do as I do” approach!
He was a firm believer in the need for mutual understanding respect for other people’s points of view, and cooperation for peaceful co-existence. He not only promoted this need and talked about it; he practiced it in his daily life in office and at home! 
He was remembered as a spiritual person, a religious person.   He followed the teachings of Buddha and believed in the ethical aspects of Buddhism and followed it religiously!  But he was neither a fundamentalist nor a fanatic.   He practiced meditation and it did help him carry out his daily responsibilities as the Secretary-General and helped him greatly when he was sick with cancer the last year of his life.
It was during that time that he finished his memoir, “View from the UN.” He wrote in that he was taught to control his emotions through the process of concentration and meditation.  Of course, being human, he wrote that he could not completely control his emotions. But to his family, his disciplined mind and will power was a great source of inspiration and emotional healing during those difficult times.
As you could imagine, he had such hectic schedule. But he found time to be with his family and thoroughly enjoyed those time.  He would come home almost every night if there were no late Security Council meetings to enjoy Burmese dinner cooked by his wife. She was a wonderful cook and he loved her cooking!  He liked to say that he was “going out to my mother’s restaurant”!  He relaxed watching the Johnny Carson show and occasionally boxing matches!
Most Sundays were the time to be home with friends and family.  He could find joy in simple things.  He found pleasure in watching his grand children and was so amused when one day my very ambitious daughter at age 3 started pretending to read. She was of course pretending and bluffing but making quite believable sounds. My father started to laugh, and she did not pay any attention to him and continued to “read” the whole book, “The Three Billy Goats.” My father was laughing so hard that tears were   falling on his face.
He loved children and appreciated their innocence.   He dedicated his life to the welfare of children and their education whether as a Headmaster of the National high School in his native town, or as the Secretary-General of the world organization. He proposed to establish the United Nations University in 1969 to promote awareness of intercultural understanding.
He promoted economic and social betterment in developing countries and during his tenure as the Secretary-General, in the 60’s and early 70’s many agencies, funds, programs and conferences were created, including The United Nations Development Program (UNDP).  
My father was an idealist but he was also a realist. Whether it was for a role as a father, or as the Secretary-General, he knew his limitations and had no illusions. He was a man of vision but was not a dreamer. His humility was legendary, but he believed in the dignity of an individual and as his child he gave me that privilege.
My father talked about two U Thants: U Thant as a private citizen and even the Permanent Representative of his country and U Thant as the Secretary–General of the United Nations.
My  remarks today is my personal reflection on U Thant who was  a son , a husband, a father and a grandfather.
My father was thought of as a great man by many. But he wanted to be remembered as a good man.

Thank you,