EDUCATION:

RESEARCH EXPERIENCES:

PUBLICATION: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Wing-yuk+chow


HONORS AND AWARDS:

1975-1978   Brown Engineering Scholar, Rice University

Hobby and Personality

In my earlier memory, Thomas was active in extracurricular activities at Wah Yan College Kowloon, including Bridge Club and Student Library. He was baptized as a Catholist. He loves playing football and reading English books. He often reads English newspapers and played English crossword puzzles. He often achieved excellent academic result. Our father passed away when Thomas was 10 and our mom had to take good care of 7 kids on her own. We 8 lived on Reclamation Street at Mong Kok Kowloon, in a small flat of about 200 square feet. All brothers lived in a small room, with a bunk bed with an wooden attic on top. Surrounding the outer walls of our flat, we constructed an additional “L-shaped” iron flower cage (a Hong Kong style construction in the old days).Usually Thomas preferred sleeping in this flower cage on a foldable bed. He also read books here often. That was how we had grown up in those years. Without help from others, Thomas was independent and achieved good grades and completed his Ph.D. all with his own effort. Thomas is an introverted person with not much expression. He is easy-going and rarely has strong opinions. He easily accommodates to others’ needs. In our family, Thomas is the one with the highest level of education and the best academic results. However Thomas is very humble and seldom boasts about his achievements in academics and career. In the 2 months after Thomas's death, I have connected with Thomas's friends from Wah Yan College, Rice university classmates and friends (in Hong Kong, Houston/ Austin USA and Vancouver Canada). I was so proud to realise how smart and humble our Thomas is, a master bridge player and a chef master. I was very happy to know that Thomas had got such a huge support network with many good old friends of 40 years at different places!

Family life

We have 5 boys and 2 girls in our family. Thomas is the fifth child and I am the youngest. We had not meet Thomas often since he started university study in USA. Thomas used to return Hong Kong for holidays more frequently in every few years. But after my mom passed away, he returned to Hong Kong in only several years and I remember his more recent trips in 1991, 2001, 2007 and 2014. Every time on Thomas’s return to Hong Kong, I invited him to dinners at our place and drove him around in Hong Kong. We enjoyed together yummy foods in Hong Kong restaurants. He became more talkative and laughed more, especially when sharing with my husband Eddie about football matches and bridge games. In 2014, Thomas returned to Hong Kong for joining Wah Yan 1972 classmates 40th anniversary and attending Ryan’s wedding (his nephew, our eldest brother’s younger son).I just realize we had the most recent family reunion with Thomas in Hong Kong in 2014. The other earlier family photo was taken in 1991 (23 years ago) after the birth of my son Jonathan. Our whole family (including Thomas) went to Lek Yuen, Shatin and took the only rare professional photo and precious happy family photo altogether!

Our Connection with Thomas in US

My husband Eddie and I visited Thomas in USA twice, in 1989 and 1997. In 1989 (1 year after my marriage), we went to USA to visit Thomas and our classmates. Thank you Thomas for making a special trip to meet us at Washington D.C. and we had happy family travel together. In 1997 summer (when my son was 6), our family 3 travelled to Disneyland, Orlando, USA. Thomas drove all the long way from Houston to pick us up from Orlando. While we drove from Orlando back to his house in Houston, we had good leisure tours on our own in New Orleans and Houston. We had stayed at Thomas' house for several days. I still remember Thomas played so happily with his little nephew (my son) with fun and big smile on his face. We treasured this rare family vacation!

In May 2020, I called Thomas by mobile, greeting him under this special the COVID-19 outbreak. I was pleased to know he was satisfied with his part-time work at Whole Foods Market in Austin for few years. He had chance to walk around supermarket and could keep fit better. He was happy to help especially elder customers (and of course delighted to see so many new food products). He felt healthier now at Austin than his office work life before. He was sufficient in his daily living and he enjoyed his independent and free living in USA. I shared with him our good news - my son's marriage in May 2021, and urged him to return to Hong Kong in May 2021 for family reunion and witnessing our family joys. I couldn’t imagine it turned out to be my last chance of conversation with Thomas... He suddenly passed away in this February and we have missed the last chance to see him!

The Last Words…

Finally, Thomas, you are such a good man! Our dear brother, we are very proud of you! Thank you God for making Thomas so unique with great talent and bless us as a family! Thank you God our Heavenly Father and the creator of our universe grant us breath and life, family, friends, work and daily bread! Let us cherish and love our family and friends always and be grateful for everything we have been granted on earth!

Thomas, our wise and humble brother, we will miss you forever! You will always live in the hearts of your beloved family and dear friends! Our memory of love for Thomas has brought him home! So glad Thomas is now resting in peace in our Heavenly Father, with no more pains, suffering and tears on earth! Surely God's goodness and love will follow Thomas and us all the days of our life! Surely God’s goodness will bring Thomas home! Amen!

I am Herman, the younger brother of Thomas. My family felt infinite grief at the moment when we heard from our youngest sister Amy that Thomas passed away in Austin, USA. It is definitely the relationship between our family members that makes us more moved and sad. “ A long long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile…” Whenever I think of Thomas, his favorite song” American pie” and his smiling face come to my mind. Because of his love for music, it has inspired my pursuit of music . Thomas had a very strong taste in listening to music. In addition to European pop music, he also liked classical music. I still remember some music tapes he bought before. Some of them has become my favorite ones.

In addition to Thomas’s love for music which affected me, his other passion is football. Since the beginning of secondary education, he liked to read sports news from English newspaper every day. It was evident that his language ability was higher than most of his classmates. The first subject matter he read was the soccer news from England. I still remember the English Football League broadcasting on TVB at a certain time on every Sunday. No matter how busy he was, he watched it on time. He would ask us to watch together.  In addition to guiding me to watch football, Thomas also taught me the fun of playing football. This fun has also become the sports skills and fun I can pass to my students as a teacher now.

“Thomas, you are always my dearest brother. We went to the same elementary school. Your learning ability had already performed well at that time. You were always among the best in class. I'm really proud of you as my brother. After you studied in Wah Yan College Kowloon, I admired you more and more. Everything you did was excellent. When you obtained a scholarship to study in Houston Rice University, it proved that your intelligence, wisdom, adaptability and hardworking spirit had outperformed others.

After reading the loving memories with sentiment written by your friends on website memorial, I feel sorry that my understanding of your relationships with the outside world is so little. But I am glad to know from your friends that you are a person with great enthusiasm in learning and humbleness in heart. It turns out that your image is so admirable that I choose to walk under your shadow.

Thomas, I truly believe that under the protection and promises of our Heavenly Father, we will  meet again someday in heaven!