| Sam was the unfortunate son. According to Chinese superstitions he was born on an unlucky day and the family's "misfortunes" were all blamed on Sam. He was told that he was bad luck. But this unlucky son accomplished more than most. He left China to attend the Taiwanese Airforce Academy. But after take-off he would often have trouble finding his way back to base. (As anyone who has driven with Sam knows, he has always been navigationally challenged.) As a result of his navigational difficulties, he was discharged. The Taiwanese government instead offered him admission to the Taiwanese university of his choice. Despite free license to attend any school he wanted, he was financially strapped and went to Taiwan Normal University because they charged no tuition and offered free room and board. He was their best biology student in 10 years. He then came to the US and earned a Masters degree at Clark University and then a PhD at Kansas State University. There he met a beautiful young bacteriology student, Chou Cheng-Chin. They were married in December 1963. Karen and I followed shortly. Sam then took a job as an assistant professor at Iowa State University in 1968 and Doug was born in 1970. Throughout his career, Sam published many articles in professional journals. At Pitman-Moore in the early 80s, he created the world's first vaccine for porcine neonatal diarrhea. Even in retirement, he had an article on electron microscopy provisionally accepted for publication. But his illness prevented him from completing the changes requested by the editor. Sam successfully raised three children. Growing up he happily indulged our diverse interests. He bought a set of encyclopedias for us before I was a year old. He bought us scientific books and a subscription to National Geographic's World Magazine. He brought home an assortment of lab animals to be raised as pets — rats, mice, chickens, chinchillas and rabbits. In 1978 we became the proud owners of one of the very first personal computers. While he encouraged our pursuits, we never felt the pressure to achieve that many Chinese American children are burdened with. So instead of lawyers, doctors and engineers, Sam and Agnes raised an economist, a linguist and an engineer. My mom can take comfort in the fact that in baseball, one out of three is pretty good. All-in-all, we turned out well. We're happy and we enjoy what we do and in the end, that's what good parenting is all about. Sam's parents thought he was unlucky — we should all be so unfortunate as to have done so much so well. I'd like to close by thanking my mom for her dedication and hard work in taking care of Sam these last two and a half years. As Sam's pulmonologist Dr. Wilson put it, her efforts have been nothing short of heroic. |