Obituaries

Kuo-Liu “Tiger” Chang, born in Shanghai, China on July 24, 1926 died peacefully in the loving arms of his immediate family, in his favorite recliner, in his apartment on March 13, 2016. He is the dear husband of Ann Chang, father of Ada Chan (father-in-law to Randy Chan) and Bertina Chang, grandfather of Jaclyn and Erika Chan.

Our dad graduated with a BS in industrial engineering from Jiao Tung University in Shanghai. He was a very loyal alumnus attending his last Shanghai reunion, the 60th, in 2008. He also earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Washington. In Seattle he met his wife of 61 years, our mother Annie Sun Fong Chiang. They lived in Seattle where Ada was born, San Francisco where Bertina was born, Whittier, and Huntington Beach where they settled from 1966-2015. In 2015, they moved to Acacia Creek, an active senior residence in Union City, to be closer to us.

Our dad worked in the aerospace and steel industries as a mechanical engineer though his true pleasure came from spending time with family and friends. There was usually a social engagement for our parents every Saturday night. Our dad organized his friends from Seattle into a group fondly called the “Seattle Club” to meet once a month at a club member’s house for dinner, poker and mahjong. The group, in its various permutations of club names, members, and accommodations for aging, met every month for about half a century.

Every summer until our grandfather’s passing in 1968, our dad drove us to visit his father, Carsun Chang and sisters Diana and June in San Francisco. He cared responsibly for his dad’s well-being. He was so proud of his father’s legacy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Junmai) and donated documents he had of our grandfather’s to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Our dad enjoyed planning vacations as much as he enjoyed seeing the world. He was a map and directions savant. He drove the family on summer road trips to Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas (it was on the way back anyway), Yellowstone, Sequoia, Yosemite, and Seattle. He loved and appreciated the beauty of nature found in national parks, sunsets, and sunrises. He had boxes and drawers full of photographs.

After retirement at age 62, our parents cruised extensively, enjoying two trips a year until their last cruise in 2015. Our Dad accomplished his goal to visit every continent, and he did it at least twice (yes, that includes Antarctica). Our parents included us in their travels, taking the entire family to Shanghai and on cruises to Mexico, Alaska, and New England and Canada.

He was a consummate engineer, exacting and detailed. He loved to recycle items into useful household tools. He was green before it was fashionable. When granddaughters Jaclyn and Erika were youngsters they called him “The Genius.” He played Scrabble and card games with us when we were kids and later embraced the electronic age with a devotion to FreeCell, Mahjong Unlimited, and Solitaire.

Our dad grew more tender, loving, and appreciative with age. He became the “cute” dad/grandpa to our friends, his granddaughters Jaclyn and Erika, and the staff at Acacia Creek. He perused catalogues to find very specific Christmas gifts for each of us. When he saw magazine articles in which he thought we’d be interested, he wrote our name at the top and saved them for us to read. Although he was a man of few words, he was always interested in our lives. He listened attentively and asked questions. We are so grateful for the experiences, lessons, memories, and his sweet smile that he has left us. We miss him very, very much

Our dad had many favorite charities. The most favored were the ones that mailed him the fewest requests to donate between the start and the end of year. That is how he decided to whom to donate. In his last month, he expressed wishes that he hadn’t smoked. In lieu of gifts and flowers, please send donations to:

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids https://ne.salsalabs.com/o/501/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=7055 Please click on “yes” this is gift in memory of someone and indicate Kuo-Liu Chang.