Deshamanya Tissa Devendra passes away

He was the first President of the Colombo University Alumni Association

Deshamanya Tissa Devendra passed away peacefully on 22nd June 2023. He is well respected for his decades in the Sri Lankan Civil Service and as a prominent author and regular contributor to the newspapers.   
Devendra read English and French at the University of Ceylon from which he graduated in 1952. He also holds a postgraduate degree from Cambridge.   

He joined the Public Service in 1953 and worked in most of Sri Lanka’s Districts including spells as Government Agent in Matara, Trincomalee and Jaffna.   

He also served as National Expert for the FAO and the UN, as well as being a founding member of the George Keyt Foundation. After his retirement, he was appointed Chairman of the Public Service Commission and later, the Salaries Commission. He was also the first President of the Colombo University Alumni Association.   
In 2017, he was awarded a great national honour, Deshamanya, for all his years in the civil service. Despite all his achievements, if you asked him what his greatest accomplishment was, he would say it was being a husband, father, and grandfather.