Johnny Lap-Kwong Lau's Obituary
Johnny Lap-Kwong Lau was born on May 6, 1979, in Hong Kong, his dad's home town. The family had moved to Taiwan earlier. It was in Taipei, Taiwan, where Johnny grew up and turned into a loveable fine boy.
At age 5 Johnny, together with his parents, immigrated to the United States, landed in the City of San Francisco, and after seven moves within the Big City, finally settled into a real home in South San Francisco. There Johnny attended various schools in the district, then San Jose State and San Francisco State, where he graduated from the Department of Science & Engineering. Because of his love for children, and his outlook in bringing up children, Johnny chose a career path in education, became a Math teacher first at Highlands Middle School, and later on at Crocker Middle School in the Hillsborough School District.
When the internet first rolled out in the late 80's/early 90's, Johnny and some of his classmates were featured in an interview on national TV discussing their vision of how the information superhighway would impact the world, particularly on youngsters. A couple of years ago Johnny received a most favorite teacher's award by the Hillsborough School District. We're all proud of this outstanding achievement.
As a little boy, Johnny was intelligent, cheerful, with a big heart of love. God gave him a special talent in music. He started singing before he could even talk when he was only 1 ½ years old! Later on he joined the San Francisco Children's Chorus singing the soprano part. At 7 years of age he produced his first "album" on cassette tape of Canon of Praise singing three different parts all by himself using his self-taught skill of triple track recording.
In his younger days Johnny attended Chinese Lutheran Church in San Francisco, where his parents are long-time members. There, working with several youth members, he led the Youth Fellowship utilizing his gift of music.
In 2008 Johnny and Herminia were married and produced four lovely children: JJ, Jocelyn, James, and Jared. He taught the three older kids piano, taught them Chinese, led them in Bible study and hymn singing, and other crafts and arts, including basketball, judo, swimming, table tennis, baseball, and dancing.
Apart from his school teaching, Mr. Johnny Lau tutored several students at their homes and was highly complimented for being an excellent role model. Johnny was a good son, a loving husband and father, and a faithful servant of the Lord.
On Nov 23, 2022, the day before Thanksgiving, Johnny was tragically killed in an accident in Burlingame, San Mateo. He will be sorely missed, fondly remembered, but we know he's now in a much better world! RIP dear Johnny.
What’s your fondest memory of Johnny?
What’s a lesson you learned from Johnny?
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Describe a day with Johnny you’ll never forget.
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