The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man is the memoir of Professor Tommy Koh. His life is full of firsts. He was the first law student to be awarded First Class Honours; the first Singaporean to study at the Harvard Law School; and the youngest ambassador at the United Nations (UN).

In his memoir, he explains how he came to be elected as the President of the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea and the chairman of the preparatory committee for the Earth Summit.

He opposed merger and argued for independence and history has vindicated him. He recounts his role as his country's Chief Negotiator for the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement and for the establishment of diplomatic relations between Singapore and China. He has been happily married for 58 years and has two sons and three grandchildren.

Contents:

• Foreword by Wei Koh

• Foreword by Aun Koh

• A Happy Childhood (1937 to 1942)

• Surving War and Occupation (1942 to 1945)

• Going to School (1945 to 1952)

• Raffles Institution (1952 to 1957)

• Studying Law (1957 to 1961)

• Working for David Marshall (1961 to 1962)

• Harvard Law School (1963 to 1964)

• Cambridge University (1964 to 1965)

• Teaching Law in Independent Singapore (1965 to 1968)

• Youngest Ambassador to the United Nations (1968 to 1971)

• Dean of Law School (1971 to 1974)

• Multiple Jobs at the United Nations (1974 to 1984)

• Ambassador to the United States (1984 to 1990)

• Back in Singapore (1990 to 1992)

• The Institute of Policy Studies

• The National Arts Council

• The Asia-Europe Foundation

• The National Heritage Board

• The Centre for International Law

• Tembusu College

• The Lee Kong Chian National History Museum

• Defending Singapore Legally

• Negotiating the US–Singapore Free Trade Agreement

• Drafting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Charter

• Co-chairing Singapore's Dialogues with China, India and Japan

• Working in the Private Sector

• Heart Work

• Family

• Friends

• Concluding Thoughts

• Timeline

• Books Published

• Awards by the Singapore Government and Agencies

• Awards by Foreign Governments and Institutions

• Awards by Academic Institutions

• Patronage

About the Author

Tommy Koh is currently an Ambassador-At-Large, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and an Emeritus Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is the Chairman of the International Advisory Panel of the Centre for International Law at the NUS and Special Adviser of the Institute of Policy Studies.

He had served as Dean of the Faculty of Law of NUS, Singapore's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador to the United States of America, High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to Mexico. He was President of the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea. He was also the Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for and the Main Committee of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit). He was the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy to Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He was the founding Chairman of the National Arts Council, founding Executive Director of the Asia-Europe Foundation and former Chairman of the National Heritage Board. He had served as a director of DBS bank and Singtel and on the International Advisory Board of Toyota. He was Singapore's Chief Negotiator in negotiating an agreement to establish diplomatic relations between Singapore and China. He was also Singapore's Chief Negotiator for the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement. He acted as Singapore's Agent in two legal disputes with Malaysia. He has chaired two dispute panels for the World Trade Organization. He was the founding Rector of the Tembusu College and founding Chairman of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at NUS.

Professor Koh had served as the founding co-chair of the India-Singapore Strategic Dialogue, the China-Singapore Forum and the Japan-Singapore Symposium.

Professor Koh has received awards from the Governments of Singapore, Chile, Finland, France, Japan, Netherlands, Spain and the United States. Professor Koh received the Champion of the Earth Award from the UN Environment Programme and the inaugural President's Award for the Environment from Singapore. He was conferred with honorary doctoral degrees in law by Yale and Monash universities. Harvard University conferred on him the Great Negotiator Award in 2014.

Professor Koh is the author or editor of 28 books. The 28th book is entitled, Tommy Koh: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man.