Yi Lin's Obituary
On Thursday, November 23, 2017, Yi Lin passed away at the age of 76 years.Yi was born on January 27, 1941, to the late Shi-Zheng Lin and Sun-Gui Xien, in Beijing, China. He and his family moved to Taipei, Taiwan, in 1947, when he was six years old. As a child, Yi was described as a natural leader who was outgoing and excelled at school and sports. Putting his utmost effort into all he did, Yi was captain of his soccer team in high school! In 1959, after graduating from high school, Yi attended National Taiwan University, Medical College, Department of Medical Technology. After graduating from university in 1963, he served in the Taiwan army for two years as Medical Officer before being given the title of Lieutenant upon completion. From 1965 to 1969 he taught at Yuen-Pei Medical Institute for three years and at China Maritime Institute for one year. He also wrote three books for part of a health series published by the Hsu Family Foundation. While he was working at the National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine, a colleague introduced him to Anne Cheng. The two wed on September 5, 1969, in Taipei. Shortly after, Yi and Anne immigrated to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada as Yi continued pursuing his graduate studies in the medical field. From there, Yi and Anne relocated multiple times between the years 1971 to 1975, as Yi completed his Master of Science degree in biochemistry, all while working and completing research in university hospitals and clinical laboratory settings. They first lived in Toledo, Ohio, then London, Ontario, back to Cincinnati, Ohio, then lived briefly in Nashville, Tennessee. Yi always spoke of his graduate school years fondly, reporting interesting tales from the following universities that he attended: University of Ottawa, University of Dayton, Western Ontario University, University of Cincinnati, and lastly, Vanderbilt University. Most notably, Yi spent many hours challenging (and winning!) his classmates and colleagues to ping-pong games during their breaks from studying.In 1976, Yi and Anne moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, living briefly in Daly City before moving to San Jose. In 1983, they moved to Union City, where they settled down at last. Since 1976, Yi worked as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist, briefly at San Francisco General Hospital, and finally, at Washington Hospital in Fremont, where he worked for more than thirty years. Because he was such an avid learner, he pursued other endeavors while working full time and raising his growing family. In 1992, he became a real estate broker and founded his own company called Franklin Properties. He even did a brief stint in law school! Upon retirement from Washington Hospital, Yi shifted his passion to fixing up cars. He took a few semesters of automotive technology at Chabot College, and enjoyed every minute of it.Yi was also passionate about history- he especially loved to watch historical television show and movie dramas (in all languages with subtitles) and read about different cultures and people. He also loved discussing politics and current events. In 2010, Yi joined the Northern California Hakka Association (NCHA), where he wrote an article about Hakka culture that appeared in the Special Edition of NCHA’s 30th Anniversary Journal, published in 2011.Yi will be remembered lovingly by his two children, Jennifer and James, his three grandchildren: Lucy, Emmeline, and Callen, and his sisters Liang-Mei Lin (Chen) and Liang-Ling Lin. He will also be remembered fondly by his son-in-law, Unsok, and numerous relatives and friends. Yi was predeceased by his wife of 48 years, Anne.
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