Dennis Wong, a multiple award-winning senior designer at the Post, died on Friday in Hong Kong following a brave battle with cancer.
Wong, 53, leaves behind his wife and a legacy in a fast-changing and moving newsroom. A core player on the illustration and graphics team since 2015, Wong worked until the final weeks leading up to his admittance to Tseung Kwan O Hospital.
He was remembered by colleagues as a passionate, kind and prolific artist who could usually be found with his head buried behind his laptop. His low-key nature never stopped him from cracking jokes to ease the pressure in the art department.
The Post’s editor-in-chief Tammy Tam sent her deepest condolences to his family.
“We are all deeply saddened to lose our dear colleague, Dennis. Our hearts go out to his family in their time of grief. Dennis made immeasurable contributions to the Post, including winning international awards as a talented and valued member of our infographics team. He fought his illness bravely until the end. We will miss him and remember him always.”
His supervisor, associate creative director Marcelo Duhalde said Wong kept working professionally after he was diagnosed with third stage cancer a year ago.
“He chose to stay positive and keep coming to the office,” he said.
When Wong joined the company nine years ago, he produced graphics for the newspaper. As the newsroom went digital, he taught himself new skills and began producing interactive infographics and was eager to share that knowledge with his teammates.
“He was generous and was still teaching newcomers in the final months so that he could pass on whatever he knew,” Duhalde said.
His efforts to be at the forefront of data journalism were publicly recognised, and he won at least 100 awards locally and globally.
These included medals and awards of excellence at the Malofiej Awards in Spain, Society for News Design, Gerald Loeb Awards, INMA Awards, Society of Publishers in Asia and WAN-IFRA awards.
But Wong remained humble and never allowed the pile of trophies to go to his head.
“He didn’t care about fame, rather, his passion and satisfaction came from his work,” assistant graphics editor Kaliz Lee, who worked closely with him on a daily basis, said
It will take some time for the team to emotionally recover from his death, so soon after the loss of former team head Darren Long, 54, in 2021, also from cancer.
“We have settled down with the death of Darren, and now we mourn the loss of Dennis,” Duhalde said.
