ForeverMissed
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Tributes
April 6, 2021
April 6, 2021
Winston helped me a lot during my graduate research career at UCD。 A little thing I still remembered: I met him first time at his office when I came to the US,I almost had no money left in packet , Winston had noticed it and wrote me a 2000 US dollar check to me that I could survive for a while。After one year, I was able to give it back to Katy, it seems both of them have forgotten the such thing, what a nice couple!
April 6, 2021
April 6, 2021
We thought a lot about Winston this past week, and yesterday especially, on his birthday. We really miss him as a friend, colleague, advisor, story teller. Katy, we hope you are doing well and we are sending you love and support and friendship as best we can. 

Best wishes, Robin and John
July 27, 2020
July 27, 2020
Sometimes,Somewhere,during the day or night time,his smiling face and loud voice come to my memories, lasting。
July 26, 2020
July 26, 2020
Dear Katy and family,
It's so hard to believe that Winston has been gone for a year. I treasure the memories of the time when I worked closely with him on behalf of the department. He was always so thoughtful and cheerful. We all miss him greatly, and we are thinking of you on this difficult day.
  Best regards.    --Shirley and Bill
July 26, 2020
July 26, 2020
Dear Katy and Family,
We never think of Winston without smiles of joy on our faces. He was such a wonderful, cheerful, kind, thoughtful person. When I came to UCD in 2002, and throughout the interview process that preceded it, I sought out his helpful advice whenever I had questions. He was a kind and wise mentor during the years I was fortunate to know him. When I was Director of CSE, and the California Hazards Institute, Winston was the person I turned to for suggestions on how to be an effective director and professor. I have never known anyone quite like him. We do miss him very much.
John and Marie Rundle
July 26, 2020
July 26, 2020
Dear Katy, Hao, Joy:

Thinking of you on this difficult day, the anniversary of Winston's passing. Sending you lots of love.

Best, Robin and John
April 5, 2020
April 5, 2020
Dear Katy, Joy, Hao:

Our family is thinking of your family today, on Winston's birthday. We always remember his birthday because it is a day before John's birthday. We often enjoyed well wishes and sometimes toasts together with him. We hope you all are staying healthy and we will light a candle for Winston on this special day. Sending love your way.

- Robin, John, Ian, and Troy
October 29, 2019
October 29, 2019
To me, Winston meant so many special things.

He was the Physics Department Chair who hired me in 2001. My first impression of him when I came for interview was: passionate, cheerful, personable, 气场强大- the "force" was strong with him, and I felt it. He was so passionate about the department, telling me many exciting new developments that were happening. It was hard not to feel resonated; at the same time he was also a tough negotiator, and he had the magic to get across his view, very convincingly. When I tried to argue for a higher start-up package to set up my lab, he said "We have Peter Klavins. He will help you set up the lab. That's priceless." Not your conventional counter-argument. But as experimentalist I fully appreciated the value of an experienced "know-all" type of person as Peter, and the view coming from a distinguished experimentalist, Winston himself. I was sold, and he was absolutely right. I know I'm not the only one he said this to.

Winston was my "伯乐", he saw something in me before others did; he believed in me before I did myself. In fact once I accepted the Davis position, he sent around letters announcing that Davis had recruited Kai Liu. Seriously? Who would care? Only my mom would brag about me like that. Winston was a special mentor. Whenever I had difficulties, I could count on him for advice and support. He was masterful at tackling problems with creative solutions. He was one of my strongest advocates. He introduced me to everyone, and nominated me for all sorts of recognition. Honestly I wasn't sure I was good enough, worried I would let him down. Sure enough, nothing worked for a while. All my proposals to NSF were initially rejected. My anxiety reached a climax when I was up for midterm review after three years at Davis. When I consulted him, then as MPS Dean, Winston said "Kai, let's ask for outside letters, maybe we could tenure you." I was like "OK? You sure?" Since joining Davis I had no single PI NSF grant, no outside recognition yet - the usual things one would consider for tenure. "What if the letters are not good?", I asked. He said "Don’t worry, you should be fine; but in case the letters are not strong, we will just call it a mid-term review". To my amazement, the physics department and the campus indeed decided to tenure me. My tenure letter arrived one week before I got the Sloan Fellowship (Winston initially nominated me in 2002, I got it on second try with Shirley’s nomination), before my career really got started. I could never get over it.

Winston was my role model. He was a tireless community leader, on and off campus. He had visions, how to make our communities better and stronger. And he put his heart and enthusiasm into what he did. He was also a tireless advocate for international collaborations. In particular, he was instrumental in formalizing and supporting university-level collaborations with a number of leading Chinese universities, including Peking Univ. and Nanjing Univ. (NJU). The UCD chemistry department has impressive bilateral exchange with Peking Univ. for over a decade now, spearheaded by Gang-yu Liu, and started under Winston's leadership. Physics has strong interactions with NJU, and Winston was key also. In 2007 he initiated a college level agreement in his capacity as MPS Dean with the NJU National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, which later triggered a 2008 University level Agreement of Cooperation between UCD and NJU. In 2013 Winston and Alex Navrotsky led the UCD delegation to the 2nd joint UCD-NJU workshop on Condensed Matter Physics in Nanjing. That summer Alex was also taking over as the MPS Dean as Winston stepped down. In true Winston style, he prepared a "MPS baton" and passed on to Alex during the workshop in Nanjing, to celebrate that special transition. 

The face of all these special things Winston meant to me, was a fatherly figure. In fact he told me the first time we met that I was similar age as his son (although he didn't say how tall Hao was). Winston was also same age as my father.

All these years, I am so blessed to have been under his wings. I know he makes everyone feel special and I'm not alone. When I recently hear the song "You raise me up" again, I think of him. Winston has indeed raised me up to more than I can be. He is dearly missed.

October 27, 2019
October 27, 2019
Winston was a valued friend, colleague, collaborator and supporter at many stages of our largely overlapping careers at UC Davis. As many have stressed, he was particularly effective as a leader and mentor at both the individual and institutional levels. His calm positivity and sincere warmth and concern for others sometimes made the impossible, possible. He was a unifier and a visionary.

His impacts on my endeavors were many. On the purely scientific front he appreciated my ideas regarding Higgs discovery and supported their incorporation into SSC and CMS detector designs. As department chair and later dean he played a major role in the creation of the High Energy Frontier Theory Initiative that brought broad recognition to the department in the area of high energy theory and phenomenology. He encouraged the many conferences that I organized through both intellectual and monetary support. We worked together to develop the intellectual arguments and written proposal for the department's now-thriving program in cosmology. On the personal level, I felt I could always count on his sound advice and friendship. But, what is truly remarkable is that many other individuals in the department and, more broadly, the physical sciences would certainly provide similar narratives detailing the impacts that he had on them at both the personal and professional level.

In short Winston was one of those unique individuals who made things happen and incentivized people around him using a combination of quiet diplomacy, intellectual integrity and positive friendliness. I had great admiration for him. I will miss him. May he rest in peace knowing that his legacy at the Department and University, not to mention the larger community (as addressed in other tributes), will long survive him.

Jack Gunion
October 27, 2019
October 27, 2019
I can start by echoing the many tributes I've seen on this page. Winston
always struck me as a genuinely good person. He was obviously good in his
professional career, but also in his family life (including kids' soccer, for instance), and in the church he founded in Davis. Quite a guy.

I've known Winston for a very long time: I was a grad student when Dick Lander brought him to UCD as a postdoc. I worked with Winston on the PEP-9 two-photon experiment at SLAC in the late 70's and early 80's. (Technically I worked for UCSD at the time, but the four collaborating institutions were -- mostly --one big, happy family). And of course I knew Winston throughout my final stint in the Physics department (22 years, starting in 1987).

The Chinese word for "Mister" or "Teacher" (先生) literally means, IIUC, "born
first". I.e., you were born before I was; hence, you deserve respect. I
remember telling Winston that I thought I was older than he, and that
therefore I deserved the honorific (this was all done jokingly, of course). It turns out that the honorific was his, not mine: Winston was born about two months before I was. And I don't mean two months modulo a year; I mean two months in the time since the Big Bang.

Hence, the news of Winston's death, certainly tragic in its own right, was
particularly sobering news to me.

Winston always seemed to have his eye on the big picture. I remember that a very long time ago he recruited a student to work on software that would allow one to, essentially, remotely work a shift at an accelerator (SLAC, Fermilab, etc.). Unfortunately, in that case Winston's vision outstripped the available technology, and the project didn't succeed, but I give him full marks for having the idea.

I recall one incident at SLAC that was maybe a little *too* big-picture for my
taste. Winston asked me to write some software for him, which I was happy
enough to do. But when I asked him for a specification, he told me "you know the kind of thing I like -- just do that".

Finally, I want to mention one aspect of my interaction with Winston that I
particularly appreciated. During my time as the software guru in the Physics
department, Winston would, from time to time, invite me on day trips to nearby research facilities (LBNL, LLNL, SLAC). To some degree I was Winston's "hired gun", to help him deal with computer-related questions. But I always believed he was also giving me the opportunity to deal with some interesting research issues, as if maybe I had something more than ordinary to contribute. Thanks, Winston. RIP.
September 25, 2019
September 25, 2019
Let me join you in your surprise and pain for the sudden disappearance of Winston.
The new brought me back of about 30 years, when I was appointed as responsible for the mu project of CMS. An enormous responsibility to which it is hard to say I was prepared. I needed support and even more human help and warm company to survive. And this I found in Winston: he was very thoughtful and discreet but he did not hesitate to intervene and open peaceful but also frank discussions. He had every time a loving attitude giving me the feeling that he was in any case on my side. We managed to convince CMS that the only solution for the fwd muon were CSC chambers . In spite of a big enthusiasm it was clear to Winston and John Layter that the project was too heavy for the four Californian groups, the only US groups involved in CMS at the time. We found in Golutvin and Dubna a natural allied and lot of help.
Together we designed the system : geometry, number of gaps per station etc….
Everything changed with the closure of the SSC project : the design remained the same but for the introduction of the ME1/2 and ME1/3 but the spirit and also the climate changed . A large number of US Institutes joined CMS reaching in a very short time the critical dimension that allowed to take care of the full Endcap.
In that difficult time I admired Winston for his calm approach to the problems and mainly for keeping always a positive attitude. And he continued to be one of my reference persons .
He was a good guide during my first trips in US. Every time I was in trouble he managed to help me in a vey natural way: he had the magic power to play down my anxiety. In my memory Winston has always a smiling round face.
He was sometime severe and very serious but the first image that comes to my mind is that of a smiling person. 
By passing away he brings with himself a part of my life.

With fondness
F.
September 16, 2019
September 16, 2019
Winston passed away much too early, so this news took also me by very sad surprise. He and I overlapped since the early years of the start of the LHC project at CERN, when the four charter members of the CMS experiment in the USA, groups from the Universities of California UCD, UCLA and UCR and UT Dallas teamed up with their plan to build the endcap muon detector. Out of this beginning, in 1994 the large US CMS collaboration emanated. Even though this project required all ingenuity and hard work at high personal risks, which subjected the collaborating scientists under perpetual stress, one person stood out in all these 25 years: Winston Ko who has been a great colleague, scholar, friend to many of us and a never ending source of inspiration to all of us. I don’t know any person more cheerful and optimistic as Winston. It is a small consolation to know that Winston had a rewarding, fulfilling and joyful life to the very end.

I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the family, friends, and close colleagues of Winston Ko.

Thomas Muller
Professor at KIT and formerly UCLA
September 10, 2019
September 10, 2019
I had Professor Ko for 3rd quarter E&M. Nearing the end of the term, it was almost Summer and the weather was really nice outside. I think he could sense our restlessness so he moved the class outside to the lawn. He continued the lecture in the warmth of the sun lecturing on the electromagnetic radiation that was reaching us from space. He will be missed!
September 9, 2019
September 9, 2019
I first met Prof. Ko as instructor for 3rd quarter undergrad E&M. I loved E&M, and it was clear charged particle dynamics and relativity were definitely up his alley (I soon learned he was a HEP researcher). But what stuck out most was that persistent and indefaitguable smile! And others around me couldn't help but notice too. My father, for instance, when Prof. Ko came up to me and my family to congratulate me at my bachelor's graduation. As I stayed at UCD for graduate studies, that smile often greeted me in the Physics halls or while parking my bike out front. He would have kind words through ups and downs of funding and publication struggles, and I suspect he advocated for me more than once. And often my Dad would ask, "How's ol' Dean Ko doing?"... His absence is a loss to us all, but I think he is still doing well, and his impact here clearly lives on.
September 6, 2019
September 6, 2019
My condolences to Winston's family and all the UC Davis physics group.
I keep fond memories from my stay at Davis as a postdoc in the 90's (as French military, I couldn't have hope any better).
The team was wonderful and I recall Winston good mood and welcome; he was then second of Richard Lander, if I am not mistaken.

Best regards,
Vincent Boudry.
September 6, 2019
September 6, 2019
All of us at Caltech send our condolences to Winston's family, friends and colleagues at UC Davis.

Winston was indeed one of the founders of US CMS, who was pivotal over decades in many areas that have made our experiment a success.

What one remembers most about Winston was his enduring vision and optimism, and especially his great kindness and openness that had a remarkable power in bringing people together. It is these qualities that live on in our memory, and make us miss him so.
September 6, 2019
September 6, 2019
Indeed sad news. Winston was a very kind and gentle soul. Rest in Peace. 
We did not meet often, but I remember those occasions well. Lucien
September 6, 2019
September 6, 2019
I send my condolences to Winston's family.

I did not have the pleasure of working closely with Winston. But, from afar, this is what I saw. I saw someone who was an exemplar of the art of getting big things done, not through bullying but rather through thoughtful persuasion. God speed Winston.
August 8, 2019
August 8, 2019
My 三姨夫 (Winston) and 三阿姨 was the first to bring me and my family to a church. I'm forever grateful to God because he used them to plant the seed that later on enabled my family to receive eternal life through Jesus Christ. 

Beyond that, I will always remember 三姨夫's gentleness, vision and joy. The warmness being in his home, the wonder of God's creation that he explored, and of course that hardy laugh coming through his wide grin. 

I believe those attributes are also embodied in his family. 三阿姨's gentle kindness towards others. 浩浩's vision for design. 小悅's joyful disposition. I pray that his legacies and memories would surround them. And pray even more the comfort of the Holy Spirit would fill them in this time.

元倫
August 6, 2019
August 6, 2019
Professor Ko made an indelible imprint on me during undergraduate classical mechanics.

He was very precise, but in our lectures there would be little mistakes every so often that one of us would invariably call out and catch. He would apologize for each one.

One class, probably after a midterm, we were pretty dazed and quiet. He had written two boards of lecture in silence, broken only by tapping of chalk and occasional rustles of paper.

He looked back at us, paused. Perhaps there was a ghost of a smile. Then he proceeded to swiftly correct 10 or more errors on the board.

We realized then all the “mistakes” were just to keep us engaged.

August 4, 2019
August 4, 2019
I knew Dean Ko briefly when I worked at UC President's Office as he was one of the faculty members who facilitated the campus administration of the COSMOS program. So many of the tributes here comport with my own fond memories of this kind-hearted, bright, forward-looking scholar. COSMOS was/is a small program in the UC scheme of things, but Dean Ko always made us feel like we were important and doing something worthy of UCD's and his scholarly imprimatur. He was a lovely person - such a good man. Blessings upon his family and loved ones.
August 4, 2019
August 4, 2019
I’ve known Winston and his family since 1986 at Davis Chinese Christian Church. I don’t remember how we met. Probably a hardy handshake or a gentle hand wave from Winston with a warm smile and friendly greeting “hi”.

I am going to miss his smile, his kind heart. I am going miss the little things that he did like the Christmas card he send to us every year. I have worked with him on many projects and committees. From church workday to serving on Administration and property and Executive council together.  He is a visionary, seems like he is always 2 or 3 steps ahead of me. He really shines when it comes to church building projects. He spearheaded in building the main sanctuary 30 years ago, and in the subsequent years, the education building and the upstair sanctuary. And at the time of his death, he was leading the planning for building a fellowship hall next door. 

Winston is a man of faith. He often say Jehovah Jireh, means that the Lord will provide. And the Bible passage that he uses is in Genesis chapter 22. The account that God provided for Abraham based upon what He saw with regard to Abraham and that pre-vision led to God’s provision. God provided a ram when he saw Abraham going forth in obedience to sacrifice his son. He provided a way out of his trial. Winston also strongly believe in the Abrahamic covenant where God promised that He will bless Abraham and all peoples on earth will be blessed through him. Winston did not just believed it but also lived to be a blessing to many of us.

Winston is funny at times. Sometimes we have more and sometimes less food at our church lunch. Winston would say proudly that thank God that he has a flexible stomach.

And he thinks graphite lubricant is the greatest invention since the telescope. He uses it on all the door locks whether they need it or not. And we have 100 doors in this church. If you don’t believe me just take a walk around the church.

For the last 20 some years, every Sunday, except for a few times a year, Winston would faithfully and quietly open all the church doors in the early morning hour as to welcome all the worshipers and visitors come later to God’s house. This is his second home. We are going to miss him. We are comforted by knowing that he is home with our Lord Jesus Christ. In John chapter 14, verse 2 Jesus said “In my Father’s house are many rooms”. When I get there. I will look for a door knob with graphite lubricant. It will be the easiest door to open and find him there. Until then may the almighty God give us His comfort and peace and help us live to be the channel of His blessings.
August 3, 2019
August 3, 2019
Here is a memory I sent to the Physics Department faculty upon hearing of Winston's sudden passing:
----------------------------------------------------------------
I wanted to share part of the conversation I had with Winston in March this year regarding celebrating birthdays (his and Tony’s is April 5th, John Conway’s is April 6th).

This is a very “Winston” conversation: Always stories and insights. He was such a great storyteller, I will really miss that. 

Robin

Begin forwarded message:

From: Winston Ko
Date: March 2, 2019 at 12:10:53 PM EST
To: Robin Erbacher
Cc: Winston Ko , Winston Ko , John Conway


It is sort of a big number for me — 76 is a multiple of 19. Do you know that every 19 years the solar and lunar cycles re-synchronize? The solar cycle is 365.24 days and the lunar cycle is 29.53 days. 19 x 365.24 / 29.53
= 235.0003 almost a whole number! I have a distant nice born in Davis on my 38th birthday in both Western and Chinese calendars, which is extremely rare. It happened again on her 19th birthday (my 57th), and our families celebrated together. It will happen again this year and their family is coming from San Jose for the weekend.

Winston
August 3, 2019
August 3, 2019
Winston as Dean hired me in 2004, together with my husband, John Conway. It was a hire he was quite invested in, since we were to become colleagues not only in Physics but also we were to work on the same experiment together. When I arrived, he welcomed me warmly to the UC Davis HEP group, and he always went out of his way to make me feel comfortable and important. I remember how excited he was when I won a young investigators award from the Department of Energy, and so very proud, he helped to throw a party in the department. He supported me tirelessly. He nominated me for a Chancellors Fellowship and when I wasn't selected, he nominated me for a Dean's award, which I did get. I could go on and on. 

He also encouraged me strongly to get involved in his EMU (Endcap Muon) group on our CMS experiment. I think he was very happy to leave a legacy of senior scientists and professors in that group. Now, since I play a leadership role in that group, I had left him on our mailing lists even after he retired, which I believe he really appreciated. It allowed him to follow the progress of our EMU group and also to continue to watch my involvement in EMU (and that of other UCD people), a lasting legacy of his initial CMS work. 
August 3, 2019
August 3, 2019
深切懷念尊敬的高長老
感謝神讓我們在DCCC相遇, 目睹您在神家衷心的服侍, 全然的擺上, 愛神愛人, 是位忠心有見識的僕人......這些都留下了不能抹去的痕跡。從此以後, 必有公義的冠冕為您存留, 相信您現在已得到了主給您的賞賜!

和您個人的相交更讓我懷念, 特別今年五月初您和我連續交談過三次, 動員我出來服事, 您的心腸, 愛, 支持, 和鼓勵使我難忘, 更是我學習的好榜樣。
張忠龍
August 3, 2019
August 3, 2019
Elder Winston will be missed. He's been a part of my life for a long time, as he and his wife visited my family shortly after I was born.

My wife and I thank God for Elder Winston. He was a strong encouragement to us, especially his love for Christ and for the church. Elder Winston was a pillar of the community and we will miss him dearly.

- Joseph and Jessica Toan
August 3, 2019
August 3, 2019
My wife Shao Shia and I extend our deepest condolences at this sad time. I knew Winston but for a short time, as we were both members of the Davis Tuesday Men's Luncheon Group. I found him to be both congenial and kind.
I certainly will miss his warm and friendly presence at our gatherings. I feel our relationship was actually longer, as my sister Maria informed me that she and his mother were very good friends.

John C. Ling, MD
August 3, 2019
August 3, 2019
Elder Winston Ko was, is, and will be remembered forever! His loving, humble smile warmed our hearts. His faithful service in the Lord had set up an example for us to look up. His leadership encouraged us to unite in one in Christ’s family. 

Elder Ko was one of the well respected founders of the Davis Chinese Christian Church in addition to being a Dean of Department on UC, Davis campus. He served as a long time Elder in the Church, and was a beloved personal friend among brothers and sisters.

We remember those years when we were in Davis. We fellowshipped together, when we had potlucks, he and Katy often brought a big crab meat dish. On an outing event, he and Katy often took charge for our lunch.  I remember in our Sunday School, he taught the books of Isaiah, Ezekiel...... He encouraged us to keep our spiritual growth “......as a root out of a dry ground......” His voice is still echoing in our ears now! We have kept some of his Sunday School handouts, precious warm memories. When he gave Sunday Message, he used to have individual of congregation stood up reading some scriptures one by one......

I will never forget that 11 years ago, when my husband was suddenly diagnosed a stage IV cancer, and needed surgery immediately. In the early morning on the surgery day, before 5:00am, Elder Winston Ko with Elder Dennis Logan and Pastor Lee of Cantonese congregation at the time, came to our home, prayed for us, and drove us to UCDMC Surgery Center. At that time, I was totally num and lost, didn’t know what to expect. Day by day, in this church, in this fellowship, with the prayers of brothers and sisters, we went through the “valley of the shadow of death”. We praised and gave thanks to the Lord, as well as to the leaders and brothers and sisters of the church. We have been grateful to Elder Ko and experienced the Lord’s faithful Love!

May our prayers be with Katy and the Ko’s family, may the Lord’s grace and comfort leads the whole family through the difficult time, may Elder Ko’s soul is now peacefully and gracefully resting in our Dear Lord’s Bosom.

In the Lord’s Love,
Lydia Gan & Quande Zhang
August 2, 2019
August 2, 2019
Winston became department chair two years after I joined the physics department. He looked out for me, starting by making sure I wasn't overburdened with department service responsibilities as an Assistant Professor, and encouraged me to make the most of my talents. His attention felt so personal that I only realized years later that he had this role for many people.

One of my favorite memories is of an incident just after an undergrad awards ceremony. (Winston was Dean at the time and could very easily have ducked the ceremony, but it was typical of him to attend.) Winston and I and a Chemistry professor went out to our bicycles to return to our respective buildings. When Winston noticed that the other professor had no bicycle helmet, he launched into a lecture on what a bad decision that was, for all the world like a parent scolding a child. He really cared about his colleagues personally as well as professionally!
August 2, 2019
August 2, 2019
I was a colleague and friend of Dean Ko for four years as dean of the College of Biological Sciences. I was impressed by his accomplishments but more impressed by the man he was: humble and kind with a gentle spirit. My life was blessed that our paths crossed and I will always be grateful for his encouragement and support.  James E.K. Hildreth
August 1, 2019
August 1, 2019
Winston was my thesis adviser, but the word “adviser” feels insufficiently descriptive. He was a mentor and role model who helped me learn and grow in many ways: by his example, by creating opportunities, and by sincere feedback that I remember as always leaving me feeling optimistic. Winston made a profound and lasting impact on me, and I will miss him. Thinking about his mix of cheery demeanor, wisdom, and strategic thoughtfulness has brought some joy to the sadness.
August 1, 2019
August 1, 2019
It was like yesterday when we just met 2 months ago in Davis, California. You were not just one of our family relatives but such a dear friend to us as we moved from Beijing, China to a brand new place to settle into our retirement. It was such a great comfort to know you and Kate as you had taken care of our insecurity feeling and needs in a totally strange place we never lived before. But gosh, why this happened to you so suprisingly and saddly. We had such a hardtime to accept the fact we have to miss you forever from now! We asked God why and why?
Dear Wisnston, you are missed so badly from our sweet memories. Dear Kate, please have our deepest condolence to your tragic loss. Our hearts will always be with you. God bless your peacefulness and health. Don't forget to call us if you need anything or anyone to be there with you.
Sincerely,
Sam and Angela Liu
August 1, 2019
August 1, 2019
I knew Winston Ko as a neighbor on Linden Lane. The last time I saw Winston was several days before his trip to Big Sur. He was teaching his young granddaughter to ride a bike. He spent all morning talking to his granddaughter in Chinese and patiently helping her learn to ride a bike. I hope Noemi always remembers her grandfather and takes joy in riding a bike.
August 1, 2019
August 1, 2019
Thanks for the invitation to Prof. Winston Ko funeral service from his family. Please accept my sincere condolences on such sudden event of professor Ko and convey I and my family deep regards to Dr. ko's family. My daughter Janet and Lisa, who represent I and my wife , will attend it since I am away from the US in China and can not make it. Please let me know if I could do any thing at this moment. 
  I am the last graduate student of Winston in the group of High Energy Physics and Winton did a lot of things that helps me to complete my Degree Research Thesis and He encourages me to work in the chip design area after receiving the Ph.D。 We met several times since I graduated from UCD. The last met with Winston was on the day of celebrating Dr. Dick Land‘s 90 years birthday party at UCD with too many colleagues in Physics Department several years ago,He looked good then。 Winston visited China at least two times when he was the dean of college of Science at UCD and came to our company to look at our research work。 He was so happy to know our new products then(photos attached)。 My family and Ko's family have a long time good relationship, we have several family reunion dinner together sometimes。When I was accepted by UCD in 1990, I came to the US without any friends and relatives, Winston drove and picked-up me and my 4 new-comer roommates from foreign country to spent our first Christmas Eve in Winston's house at UCD, It was really unforgotten party in my life then. When I had my first kid born at UCD,Winston and Katy looked-up many books and found my daughter name: Janet.
  It is a big shock for me and we lost a good professor, a wise old man, a long-time friend. We wish him go well to heaven!
August 1, 2019
August 1, 2019
We consider DCCC our original home church. Uncle Winston welcomed us and countless others for years and years. His booming presence and teddy-bear smiles and hugs enveloped us, filled the entire room where he was. He was monumental in creating this nurturing and safe environment for young adults who recently moved to Davis and were looking for a church home. Uncle Winston and Auntie Katy stand like pillars of the church body. Now, he sings with the angels in Heaven where we will all meet again. ~ raymond and wendy lee
August 1, 2019
August 1, 2019
Winston, our beloved and well respected Elder, is instrumental in founding Davis Chinese Christian Church. Under his visionary leadership, the Church has built up from a small Bible study group to a four-land lot Church near UCD, serving thousands of college students and scholars during the past years. We all owe him so much and deeply grieved over his sudden departure.

He has fought the good fight, finished the race and kept the faith. Now there is in store for him the Crown of Righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will reward to him on that Day.
August 1, 2019
August 1, 2019
It was a privilege and a pleasure to have known Winston. I am sure everyone, particularly Katy and the rest of the family, are still trying to process the shock! Winston embodied brilliance and humility. His charity and giving seemed never ending. He was a consummate leader, providing guidance, support and most importantly vision that led to transformative outcomes at UC Davis. A gentleman to the core, with nary a harsh word. Hopefully we will aspire to continue the path he laid out and honor his legacy.
July 31, 2019
July 31, 2019
My condolences to Dr. Ko’s family.
I remember Dr. Ko as such a kind and pleasant man. I worked as a lecturer while he was chair of the physics department between ’98 and ’02. I appreciated his leadership and tact; as one example, simply requesting emails to verify who would be present to lecture during union negotiations. He was also respectful of my choice to work part time while our daughter Adrienne was tiny. I became a full time mom after our twin sons were born, so missed working with him after ’03, but was happy to hear he had become Dean.
I look forward to seeing him again in a better place with no more crying or pain. Rev 21:4, 1 Thess 4:13-18.
Yours,
Brenda Weiss
July 31, 2019
July 31, 2019
All the members of the UC Santa Barbara high energy physics group send our condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Winston, as well as our deep appreciation of his many contributions to the CMS experiment.

Best regards,
Jeffrey RIchman
Professor
July 31, 2019
July 31, 2019
it is very sad.
I will always remember Winston's unforgettable smile, he was always friendly and positive, being at the same time determined and firm.
Those of us, his colleagues, who are older, remember vividly his many seminal contributions to CMS and US CMS.

Guenakh Mitselmakher
July 31, 2019
July 31, 2019
I met Winston for the first time in 1980, when I was a graduate student in the Dutch group in the TPC/Two-Gamma collaboration at SLAC. He certainly was one of the more memorable people of the Davis group in that experiment, and I remember wonderful discussions we had about a variety of topics while on shift running the experiment. After the experiment ended in the late 80's we unfortunately lost touch. But I will always remember him as one of the good guys!

I wish his family and friends condolences on their loss.

Sincerely,

     Willy Langeveld 
July 31, 2019
July 31, 2019
Here is a copy of the notice we (the UC Davis CMS experiment group senior physicists) sent to Winston's Endcap Muon (EMU) group. Many condolences are coming in so I will pass on this site to those who would like to express their sentiments here.

Dear EMU Colleagues,

It is with extreme sadness and shock that we inform you of the unexpected passing of our dear friend and colleague Winston Ko at the age of 76. He died on Friday July 26 while pursuing a favorite pastime, hiking, with his family at Big Sur State Park, on the central coast of California.

Winston was a leader in defining CMS and U.S. CMS, and UC Davis was in the first four United States institutions to officially join the nascent CMS Collaboration at a time when the focus of U.S. high energy physics was on the SSC. As such he was a signatory of the CMS Letter of Intent in 1992, when he and others at UC Davis were still involved with the AMY Experiment at the Tristan e+e- collider at the KEK laboratory in Japan.

In the early planning stages of CMS, Winston was involved in the decision for the first U.S groups to develop the Endcap Muon (EMU) detector subsystem, and the technology choice of cathode strip chambers. He was instrumental in bringing to UC Davis the development project of the switched capacitor array (SCA) ASIC, a crucial component of the CSC readout. Winston was also the first CMS Muon Software Coordinator.

(The story of how UC Davis joined CMS is attached postscript, as is a screenshot of a video of a toast during the 2014 U.S. CMS Granlibakken meeting in honor of the founding of U.S. CMS, and of the memory of one of the early *CMS* collaboration meetings, held at Granlibakken in 1995.)

Winston later served as Chair of the Physics Department, and then as Dean of the Division of Mathematics and Physical Sciences until his retirement in 2013 with nearly 50 years of service to UC Davis. Even during his university leadership, he remained involved with CMS, especially in procuring funding and helping to keep UC Davis involved in EMU.

Many of us continued to benefit from his experience, wisdom, and friendship even in these years after his retirement. We will miss his optimistic attitude and always cheerful smile. Our sincerest condolences go out to his family and friends.

We plan to send a message to all of CMS as well, but wanted this EMU group to be informed first, since Winston was such an important member of EMU.

-- UC Davis CMS: 
Richard Breedon, Maxwell Chertok, John Conway, Timothy Cox, Robin Erbacher, Richard Lander, Michael Mulhearn, David Pellett, John R. Smith, S. Mani Tripathi 


PS: The UC Davis CMS beginnings, as recalled by the original group founder and leader, R. Lander, in which Winston played a large role:

"Here is pretty much the story of how UCD got into CMS.

First, we had been working in KEK (e+e_) on the AMY detector collaboration that was led by Steve Olsen. That detector had a small high intensity magnetic field.

Winston liked the idea of a small solenoid with a high field, so when the SSC was proposed and there was a call for detector designs, Winston suggested that we should propose a compact, high field solenoid designed to look almost exclusively for muons. I designed such a detector for the coming SSC.

So this was a Compact Muon Solenoid design. (We didn't call it CMS.) Muons because one of the main decay modes of the Higgs was expected to be just four muons. (That turned out to be true when the Higgs was later discovered at CERN.) We called our proposal 10^34 because it could handle the highest intensity of the SSC; the other proposed detectors would not be able to operate at that beam intensity. Note that our proposal was before the SSC was cancelled and CERN took on the search with their proposed new accelerator.

Our proposal was not selected, but CERN had been competing with the U.S. SSC project, so we wrote a Letter-of-Intent for such a detector at a CERN accelerator, if it should be constructed. UCD was the first U.S. group to propose to work with CERN on this Higg search project. A group at CERN had been planning a similar detector, and we joined with them for the compact solenoid design.. (They recognized that we the same concept independently of them.) The CMS came from this group. The CMS was approved to be one of the detectors at the CERN accelerator.

Then when it came to assigning design and construction tasks within CMS there was a problem among groups for construction of the muon component. Winston was at a meeting and broke the impasse by suggesting that the barrel and forward muons be separate projects. That was accepted and UCD got into the forward muon project. 

That's it. -Dick"

WinstonToast-VidClip1.jpeg
July 31, 2019
July 31, 2019
Winston clearly had a tremendous impact on particle physics, particle physics at Davis, the Davis physics department and the school of Physical Sciences at Davis.  He also had an important impact at my university, Rice, as a member of the visiting committee that reviewed our department on several occasions. I think it is fair to say his input was crucial to keeping the nuclear and particle physics groups at Rice healthy and vibrant. I am a better physicist for having worked with him. Most importantly though, he was tremendously decent and nice person. This is a very sad loss, please accept my condolences.
Paul Padley
Rice University
July 31, 2019
July 31, 2019
I'd like to pass along my memories regarding some of Winston's early contributions to the endcap muon detector that the U.S. built for the CMS experiment. My memories do not go back as far as what Dick Lander wrote, which date to the time of the 1992 Letter Of Intent for CMS when only UC Davis, UC Riverside, UT Dallas, and my own institution UCLA were signing members of the experiment. 

Back in the mid- to late-1990s, after the collapse of the SSC when many more from the U.S. as a whole joined LHC and CMS, Winston's UC Davis group created the Monte Carlo detector simulation and performed studies that were absolutely key to the whole CSC endcap muon project for the original Technical Proposal and TDR of CMS (1997). Winston arranged strong DOE base program and UC Davis support for the people making this effort during a time when R&D funds were largely devoted to detector and electronics prototyping, and his sustained support ensured the success of the Detector Performance Group for the endcap muon detector over the extremely long span of about two decades.

Winston hosted several of our key meetings at UC Davis, and besides his early contributions, we all remember fondly his enthusiastic and bubbly personality.

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