George Chao's Obituary
George Chao passed away on Feb. 16, 2014 at the age of 80, surrounded by his loving family. He was born in Fengxian County, Jiangsu province in mainland China and came up from a hardscrabble life. He was the second of six children and the oldest son, born during the Japanese occupation of China. When he was in middle school, the civil war in China forced him to leave home at the tender age of 14. His mother sent him to another town to go to school. Events led him to Shanghai, where he boarded the last ship to Taiwan with some classmates, thinking it would be for temporary safety. Little did he know that it would be 25 years before he would be reunited with his family.George graduated from Cheng Kung University in Taiwan in 1958 and received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan in 1964. He spent time working in Toronto, where he was married in 1965; Reading, Pennsylvania; Gaithersburg, Maryland; and Ann Arbor, Michigan, before settling in the Bay Area, where he lived for 40 years. He worked in the nuclear division of General Electric for 21 years.After retiring in 1995, George devoted his spare time and energy to a newly established nonprofit, the Soar Foundation, dedicated to supporting needy students in China’s countryside. Because of his own struggles to continue his schooling, volunteering at Soar was deeply fulfilling for him.He is survived by his wife, Regina; children Julie (and husband Manuel) and Roy (and wife Cori); grandsons Nolan, Justin, Sawyer, and Leo; siblings Zhao Suzhen, Zhao Jian, and Zhao Suping; and many nieces and nephews.Memorial donations may be made to Stanford’s Cancer Discovery Fund.Checks may be made payable to Stanford University and sent to: Development Services PO Box 20466 Stanford, CA 94309Indicate “in memory of George Chao – for the Cancer Discovery Fund” in a separate note. Donors may prefer to give a gift on-line, and they may go to http://medicalgiving.stanford.edu/ . They should request the Cancer Discovery Fund and enter “in memory of George Chao” in the instruction box.
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