I would like to share my memories about Prof. Chen. As a student, I took Prof. Chen's classes during the fall of 2006 and the spring of 2007.

The first time I saw Prof. Chen I was a silly first-year engineering graduate student hoping to switch to physics program at Auburn. I remember that day I was wandering in the empty hallway of physics building. I tried to knock some office doors but nobody answered. It might have been some holiday that day. Then Prof. Chen appeared. He asked me what I wanted and lead me to his office. "Cases that engineering students succeeded in physics were very rare.", he warned me. Nevertheless he offered me a seat in his quantum mechanics class. This became my first education in physics. I worked hard to understand his lectures but it was not easy at all because of my poor background in physics. Afraid of showing my ignorance and being kicked out of the class, I would not ask Prof. Chen any of the questions that confused me (there were too many and they were too basic/stupid). Prof. Chen was so sensitive that he indeed noticed my issue. He encouraged me to ask questions and without letting me know, asked a chinese girl in the class to help me (He must have also noticed my poor English skills). How considerate! Later on, I started to ask questions after class. He would carefully explain everything in detail and would not let me leave his office until he believed I really understood what he said. He was knowledgeable and rigorous. With Prof. Chen's recommendation I was able to finally enter the physics program.

I remember that at that time we had to spend a huge amount of time working out Prof. Chen's problem sets, which we would sometimes complain. Despite this, we all felt we could learn a lot from his class and his homework was always our first preference to discuss and attack. It was only after I left Auburn that I realized solving problems is the only way to truly learn physics. Prof. Chen was an experienced physicist. He was really training his students and preparing them the skills to survive in physics. He was like a father. I am sure we were not the only group of students who benefited from Prof. Chen's teaching and who felt truly thankful. I clearly remember how proud Prof. Chen was when he showed to the class his former undergraduate student's greetings and excellent simulation work from Wisconsin.

I left Auburn in 2008. Prof. Chen and I had some phone calls thereafter. He asked me about my current research project and said we should discuss more new physics next time we meet. He had just retired then but still maintained great enthusiasm in physics. In January of 2011, I met Prof. Chen at Auburn. He gave me advice on doing research. He knew my weakness and encouraged me to communicate more with people around. He was always a good adviser. I wish one day I could be among those students he is proud of. It is a pity that I know very little about Prof. Chen away from physics. The only piece of memory was on the first mid-autumn day after I arrived in the US. After class, he asked me if I had had any mooncake. I said I had not, and I thought, "he must be a traditional person."

Rest in peace, Prof. Chen, my first adviser in physics.

His student,
Guang Yang

An-Ban was my classmate at the Taiwan Provincial Chia-Yi Middle School (1955-1961). We used to play games together at the 10-minutes class breaks, even though we were not in the same class (his class room was next to mine, and there were 5 classes in our 1955 Class). I still remember both of us took the college entrance exam in the same classroom at Mechanical Engineering Dept. campus of Cheng Kung University (CKU) in Tainan, July 1961. We reviewed our test scores of mathematics together and concluded that both of us can only get 20s out of 100 and thus will not be admitted to colleges. It turned out that nobody got the passing score of 60 (58 was the highest score obtained by all candidates) and An-Ban was admitted to Taiwan Normal University; me to CKU.

After serving the ROTC in Taiwan, An-Ban went to the US and entered Williams and Mary College for graduate studies in 1967. As a graduate student at Duke in North Carolina, I drove to Williamsburg, VA in 1969 to pay a visit to An-Ban, and it was the first time I met Mayurase (Yu-Fong), the newly-wed bride. With their warm hospitality, I enjoyed sightseeing in the old town and the Virginia Beach. Later, our two families exchanged many visits in Pittsburgh, PA and Cleveland, OH in 1970s when I was with Westinghouse and An-Ban at Case-Western University. We always kept in close contact since then, including his sabbatical at Stanford Univ. and his final settlement at Auburn University. I recall in 2002 An-Ban took a business trip to Washington, DC and visited my home. We had a long chat in my backyard deck after dinner. He told me he was lucky to escape a hit by a collapsing deck in Auburn (he was almost killed by that deck). And he was still mourned by the passing of his son, Philip due to Leukemia. As to his wife, Mayurase, he always seeks her advice in advance on any family affairs even as trivial as grocery shopping items. Those demonstrated that, besides his achievements in academics, he was a family man- loving his family dearly and a role model as father and husband!! (My wife often complains my role as husband and suggests I should follow An-Ban as a role model for husband)

We were distressed to learn the passing of An-Ban, and write here to express our deepest sorrow. The world has lost one of the most magnificent men, and we have lost a great friend. We know his legacy and his love will continue, and all the precious memories will be cherished in our hearts that will last forever. He will long be remembered by all his schoolmates at the Taiwan Chia-Yi Middle School. We would like to extend our deepest regret and hearty condolences to his beloved family.


                                     Chuang, Tze-jer (莊子哲) from Gaithersburg, Maryland 

(The following was presented by William Chen, An-Ban's son)

I would like to acknowledge some of my cousins who are here.  All of them have been a big part of my parents’ lives.  I would like to start with David, my uncle’s son. He has known my Dad pretty much his entire life.  He is responsible for the memorial site, an-ban-chen.forevermissed.com.   Please keep submitting stories and tributes to the site.  The tributes we've had here will also be posted on the site.  David also spent the last few nights helping us with my father’s computers because we didn’t know the passwords.  There were a treasure trove of photos that I am sure my mom would not have wanted lost. He also able to set up my Mom with email and her iPhone and such but also patiently teaching her how to use it.   So my mom now has email, please send her emails.  He will also recite Fear no More the Heat of the Sun by William Shakespeare at the burial at Memorial Park Cemetery in Auburn, which will happen immediately afterwards, and everyone is invited.

My father will be buried next to my brother Philip, who had cancer and passed away in 1983 at the age eight.  Philip at that young age always knew what to say to make my parents smile, and he could light up a room, in that way he was way different than I was.   Though I have been their only son for most of my life, they took in many of their nieces and nephews into our home and helped them.  I remember my cousin Viyada, who my Dad practiced English with until she passed the TOEFL exam.   She lived with us for several years, and she also took care of me when my mother and father had to be at the hospital with Philip. She received her Master Degree in Education at Auburn.    My father also introduced her to one of his graduate students,  Sermsuk, who received his Master in Physics from Auburn and they have been happily married for 30 years in Montgomery.
   
My cousin Karen came over from Thailand and attended Auburn High School for two years living under their roof while I was in college, I remember Dad helping her with math and physics both in high school and college.. and Mom being surprised at the books I read in high school English,  because my mom read the books with her to help her because it was her first year in the United States and the high school teachers wanted her to analyze Shakespeare.   But she also said there was a lot of pressure to do well in math and science competitions after the teachers found out who her Aunt and Uncle were.  She graduated from Auburn with a degree in Electrical Engineering, a Masters in Computer Science, and is now a successful senior engineer at AT&T in Seattle.  She is also staying with my mom till Sunday… so very kind and generous.
   
My cousin Jo also came to study Electrical Engineering at Auburn and received his PhD within three years with a 4.0 GPA.  Is that really right? Wow!  He’s worked in the telecom industry for ten years and is starting a new job in Maryland, also with AT&T. Now, I don’t really know what he does because it’s with the defense department and it's classified.   But between jobs, when my father moved to Philly to live with me to seek medical treatment at University of Pennsylvania; he also moved in with us to help out Mom for a couple of months.  He helped her shop and prepare meals for his special diet.  My father, at some point, was too weak to climb the stairs in my house, so he would carry his meals upstairs and also run errands for him.  He really helped us out.  His generosity is really unbounded.

All of you are examples of the American dream, but you are also a part of my father's legacy, as much as I am, so please cherish that.   My father was a real patriarch; anyone who really needed help or was in trouble knew he was the one to turn to, both his students all of my relatives even the Chinese student community here.   I know when one of you had problems with immigration, I remember he went over your documents and practiced the interview over and over again, pretending to be the agent.   But the lesson I learned, when he was speaking to you, was what he said about not taking shortcuts, just being honest, tell them what happened, but also explain why they should listen to you.  It was the same thing with his graduate students or when I had a presentation at school or at one of his conferences, he would patiently sit there while we did it over and over and over again until he was satisfied.
   
It was not that easy being his son.   He was the man that helped everyone and I tried to solve my own problems, and was slow to take advice from Mom and Dad, still am, by the way.   I would think didn’t need to practice, I knew what I was doing.   When I read one of his papers, I always tried to find a sharper or slicker solution.  One time in high school, I mentioned to him (I am sure quite arrogantly) that I found an exact solution to the equation he was trying to solve.   I was doing math contests and what he was writing looked very similar to a solution method I remembered.   It’s a testament to him that he asked this sixteen year old kid (who happened to be his son) show me, I want to learn.   However, immediately the day after, he had generalized my solution to the matrix case, and also explained to me the physical intuition of the solution.  Which of course I didn't understand at all.  But he was smart that way.  That was the paper that Dr. Sher mentioned.
     
I did learn a lot the couple of summers I worked with him.  From him I actually learned how to look at your data honestly, and think about what is really going on.   Do you really have a model or is your model just fitting your data.  Also what studies may shed more light on the topic you are thinking about.   And he would constantly ask probing questions and challenge your ideas - sometimes embarrassing questions.   This has served me well in my work - which is making models for finance and for poker.   I don’t know how many people realized after he was diagnosed with cancer, he researched the possible treatments and had a full schedule of correspondings with doctors and patients.   He read the papers in the field with relish, this is a new field to him, often telling doctors about a promising result or looking at the statistical significance of the published results.   I really felt that applying his research talents to a new field brought him a certain amount of satisfaction and hope in his condition. And, as my mom told me helped many people.. many patients.
 
Of course at the end I always turned to him when I did really need help or advice.   He helped me even to the end.  I remember a recent family trip to Panama City, Florida—vacations where my Mom really loves by the way --where I was in front of the computer instead of the beach.   I had to write a letter of recommendation for a colleague and friend, for graduate school in mathematics.   He read what I had, then told me basically what the graduate committee would be looking for -- since he had been on graduate committees, admission committees for decades -- but also said tell the honest story--they respect you--tell them why they should accept him.   He is now about to receive his PhD from Yale.  My father told me before he died, he did give me one last bit of wisdom which I want to share with you, “You are so smart, too smart for your own good.  But you are not wise yet.”  With experience comes wisdom, so I will strive, I will try, even if it takes me a the rest of my life.    

The other thing he said was “take care of your mother,” which I will also tell those of you who are close to her to do.  She has chosen to remain in Auburn.  As part of the community here and the university for 38 years she just feels comfortable here.  Part of the highlight of their stay with me in the fall of 2010, when my mother did have to move to Philadelphia, was watching the Auburn football games together with my Dad, where we were winning each week.  As you guy remember each game was really exciting and we kept winning each week and then we won the BCS game.  A big War Eagle to everyone!…  But 2012 has really been a pretty bad season huh… for everyone. Mom really isn't into football but she knows every top PGA player, and I am sure she is going to average at least 9 holes everyday.  So I hope you will all help me.  And mom, I am going to visit and call you much more often.

We are sad today because of his passing, but tomorrow we should rejoice because of the life he lived. The controversial confederate general Albert Pike said, "What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us, what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."

I will now ask the family members to stand including his academic family because you are part of the family too, and I will ask my mother to join me at the casket.   We are going to have a moment of silence, at the end I will go back to the podium and say "Thank You"  At that point, those that are of the Christian faith may say Amen those who are of the Buddhist faith may  say Ameida-Hut or a simple “good-bye” or remain silent.  We are going to have a minute of silence now.

Thank you.