Gor Tenga, longtime Director of the Sabmadi Department of Science and Technology (DS&T) passed away Saturday. He had been in Sagallo defending the FLAME Act in front of the Confederate Senate and was returning to Sabmadi when he apparently suffered a sudden aortic dissection. He was treated by medics aboard his ship before being transferred to Greater Tonderay General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Proposed monument to commemorate the late Director's accomplishments, to sit in the surroundings of the DS&T headquarters building in downtown Tonderay, credit: Hugh Marentes.
He was beloved by many, charming and kind to the end. Although many look to his tenure as Director to discuss the many great acts he performed, it would be remiss not to mention the many personal achievements he accomplished. A keen sportsman and musician for many years, he even performed at concerts across Sabmadi during what little leave he took from his post as Director. He formed many music groups across government, an especially well-known and high-profile example being the Tenga Trio with then-Vice Chancellor Lin and Superintendent Akashi.
Before Gor Tenga’s tenure as Director, the DS&T had largely been a quiet office whose primary function was in awarding research grants to Universities. Bureaucrats from other offices often considered DS&T to be a place where careers went to die a slow, paperwork-lacking death. The levels of staffing in the Department were a shock to Gor Tenga, who had been a longstanding Dean of the Sabmadi Institute of Technology. He wrote in his memoir, In Layman’s Terms, “They ran the whole department with a skeleton crew in those days. The Museums Authority, for example, was run out of a cupboard in the basement of the Office of Directors. It consisted of two interns, a laptop, and a few cardboard boxes.”
The department was completely transformed under Gor Tenga’s leadership. The Director established a number of new committees and offices designed to increase public engagement with the sciences, expand publicly-owned research facilities, and give never-before-seen experimental capabilities to the Sabmadi scientific community.
Above all else, Gor Tenga was gifted in the efficient use of his limited funding. He is said to have never requested more funding than DS&T was appropriated, even a single time throughout his storied career. He was so successful that other government offices frequently called him in to consult on their spending plans as well. Tenga managed to achieve these budgetary feats through an innovative mixture of public and private patronage. He made use of his striking charisma to secure funding for his many projects on the Chamber floor, in the Antares Senate, and in the offices of CEOs.
Among his numerous celebrated achievements, one that occupied many of the waning days of his life was the development of the Chiemeka Extremely Large Telescope, or CELT, a project designed to not so much push the boundaries of astronomical observation as pick them up and throw them bodily at the unknown. The development of the project was heralded as a leap forward by many in scientific circles, and it gained funding from the governmental scientific institutions of Embasora, Tehnali, and Thanh-Jenal.
Tenga was instrumental in the ongoing Antares Astrophysical Survey, which served to illustrate and study the many unique characteristics of the planetary and stellar bodies within the Antares system. He also personally spearheaded Sabmadi’s submissions to the Mandakir International Engineering Fair.
Chancellor Lin is reported to have spoken at his funeral;
He was an excellent Director and a greater man. I have known no friend as reliable or steadfast as he, and I have known no man more willing to stand up for his values. He stood as the very paragon and ideal of a citizen of our fair Republic, but no man, no matter how great, can live forever. I may have lost a friend today, but our Republic has lost one of the greatest figures of our time.
Gor Tenga was 117 at the time of his death.
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