In December last year, his elder daughter Georgia (22) graduated from the university with an honours arts degree in history and a diploma in languages, endorsed in French.
Unbeknown to him until noon on graduation day, Pro-chancellor Trish Oakley had arranged for the proud father to cap his daughter.
It came as a "huge" surprise and Mr Wong, whose council tenure recently ended after two terms, said it was a very thoughtful move and something he would never forget.
Mr Wong himself graduated from Otago 46 years earlier, in May 1980, with a commerce degree in accounting and finance.
Back then, student numbers were much smaller and they were paid standard tertiary bursary for being there.
Student union fees were minimal, course fees "weren’t like they are now" and there were probably more jobs than graduates, particularly in accounting, he recalled.
Mr Hong had a stint working in Singapore in 1984 and then headed to the United Kingdom in 1985 for two and a-half years before returning to New Zealand in 1987.
He later became a senior partner at accounting firm Cook, North and Wong, although he had now retired from ownership and being a principal of the firm, working instead as a part-time consultant and still liaising with some long-standing clients.
Just like university, it was a different world from when he started; standards and tax law had become much more complicated and compliance was a lot more involved than it was previously. It was a good time to ease out so younger ones, with more energy, could take over, he said.
His tenure on the University Council was a ministerial appointment and he chaired the council’s audit and risk committee. There was a lot to deal with in terms of the risks and opportunities it faced.
The Covid pandemic was a standout in terms of one of the most difficult times the country has faced, and also the tertiary sector, he said.
Initially, it was the unknown in March, 2020 of how it was going to play out, what the effects were going to be and what the world was going to look like.
Then the long tail of the pandemic had an impact in terms of government reaction and fiscal policies which had created funding issues for the sector. Couple that with the geopolitical situation and wider international issues such as climate change and ESG and it was a very complex sector, he said.
The university was a very large employer in Otago and so important to the local economy. Its importance weighed heavily on those in leadership roles. With such a long-standing reputation and loyal following, everyone was conscious of maintaining that, he said.
The world was changing quite rapidly and the tertiary sector needed to be more agile, think ahead and strategise a lot more. "You can’t just be the traditional model that we’ve always worked under," he said.
Plus there was the increasing reliance on digital technology these days which came with not just risk but also opportunities the likes of AI created and it was important to look "at both sides of the equation", he said.
Mr Wong’s younger daughter Eleanor (18) was a first-year student at Otago this year and he was delighted both his daughters continued the Otago connection. Not only was it a place of learning but also a place to develop good citizens who were critical thinkers and that was an important role.
Thinking back to his grandparents’ days and even his parents, they worked hard and part of why they did so was to ensure their children had a better education than they did. Education "tops the bill" and that was probably the same for all migrants, he said.
Being on the council was being part of the whanau of the organisation and other highlights were the functions he attended, including graduations. There was the likes of the Māori pre-graduation, the Pacific breakfast, the blues and golds awards for students and the staff awards for excellence.
All of those illustrated that it was the people that was most important; that had to be balanced with the fact it was a large organisation and it had financial constraints and all the things that came with that, like fiscal responsibility, and it was a fine balance, he said.
Mr Wong, who was born in Dunedin of Cantonese parents, has also had a long and heavy involvement in the Chinese community. He is a past chairman of the Dunedin Shanghai Association and he has been chairman of the Dunedin Chinese Gardens Trust since 2008.
He is also chairman of the Dunedin Chinese Cultural Festival advisory board; the Dunedin Chinese Cultural Festival runs until March 3, honouring Chinese culture, heritage and contemporary creativity while recognising the enduring contribution of Chinese communities to Dunedin and New Zealand.
He is chairman of Sun Gum Saan Ltd (New Gold Mountain), a social enterprise formed by the Dunedin Chinese Gardens Trust and the Otago and Southland Chinese Association to develop lesson plans to teach local Chinese history in schools.
