Singaporean President, Journalist. He served as the 1st President of Singapore from 1965 to 1970. He also served as the Yang di-Pertuan Negara of Singapore from 1959 to 1965. Prior to becoming president, he was a co-founder of the newspaper Utusan Melayu. Born in Terong, Taiping, Perak, British Malaya, he attended King Edward VII School in Taiping, and was then admitted to Victoria Bridge School in 1923 when his father was posted to Singapore. He enrolled in Raffles Institution the following year. After graduating in 1929, he began his career as a journalist and would go on to establish Utusan Melayu in 1939. However, with the Japanese Occupation in 1942, publication of Utusan Melayu stopped as they were requisitioned to publish the Japanese paper, Berita Malai. Yusof then moved to Taiping where he ran a provision shop. After the war, he returned to Singapore and resumed operations of the press. In 1957, he moved to Kuala Lumpur, and the headquarters of Utusan Melayu also shifted there. During the post-war period, the climate was changing with the Malays wanting independence from the British. Yusof, through Utusan Melayu, fanned this fervour which culminated in the formation of the UMNO political party in 1946. However, UMNO's vision of reestablishing the sultanate in Malaya and Yusof's democratic ideals resulted in tensions between them. In 1959, as UMNO had bought almost all of the shares of Utusan Melayu, he resigned from the nespaper and sold off all his remaining shares. After his resignation from Utusan Melayu, he took the position of Chairman of the Public Service Commission of Singapore at the invitation of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. On December 3, 1959, he was appointed the Yang di-Pertuan Negara of Singapore. When Singapore was expelled from Malaysia and became an independent nation on August 9, 1965, he transitioned to become the first president of Singapore. As president, he continued to promote multiculturalism by visiting constituencies and reaching out to different racial and religious groups, helping to bring trust and confidence in the new nation. He died of heart failure in 1970, after serving three terms. His portrait is still featured on Singaporean dollar banknotes.