Kuan Chu and Fang-Lan Kuo's Obituary
Kuan Chu Kuo passed away on April 7, 2021 at Saddleback Memorial Hospital in Laguna Hills, CA, 4 days after suffering a stroke and 7 days after his beloved wife, Fang-Lan Wang Kuo, passed away in her sleep. He was 85 years old.
Kuan Chu was born in Chiayi, Taiwan on May 25, 1935, the 8th son of 20 children born to Dr. Zhu Shi Kuo, a prominent doctor with a thriving medical practice in Chiayi.Kuan Chu's mother, Mrs Zhan Lan, was a gentle woman who raised her children to be humble and hard-working. As a boy, although he was clever and loved to learn, Kuan Chu did not care abut grades at school. He would study enough to pass his classes and then spend the rest of his time playing Go. At home, he would play Go with his brothers when they were supposed to be studying, and when they heard their father's wooden shoes on the hard floor coming towards them, they would quickly hide the board and pieces and pretend to be studying. His passion for Go would endure throughout his life, and Kuan Chu won several tournaments and achieved a master rank of 5 dan.
Kuan Chu graduated from Chiayi upper Middle School in 1954 and then attended National Taiwan University Medical school. After graduating in 1961, he worked as a young doctor at the National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei where he met a young nurse, Fang-Lan Wang. When Fang-Lan came to the United States to pursue graduate studies in nursing, Kuan Chu followed. They were married in 1966 in San Fransico, California, moved to New Haven, Connecticut where Kuan Chu was in the medical residence, and had 2 daughters, Lisa born in 1997 and Erica born in 1968. Kuan Chu spent most of his career as a public servant tending to patients in New York States Ward Island Psychiatric Hospital. He worked hard and invested his state government salary wisely to take care of his wife and send his two daughters to university and law school. He retired from medicine in 1995 and moved to San Juan Capistrano, California to enjoy the sunshine and look across the Pacific Ocean to Taiwan.
Kuan Chu will be remembered as a kind, generous, thoughtful, and caring man who was devoted to his family and church. As the first in his family to come to the United States, he welcomed all family members who came after, helping his siblings and nephews and nieces get settled in a new country and work though any difficuly. Later in life, he loved getting together with his classmates from Chiayi Upper Middle School and National Taiwan University, to travel together and, of course, play Go.
Kuan Chu died peacefully on April 7, 2021 surrounded by his daughters. A memorial service celebrating his life was held on April 18, 2021 at the True Jesus Church in Irvine, California. He is survived by his two daughters, Lisa and Erica; his son-in-law, Thomas Kim; his grand-daughter, Noelani Kuo Kim; and dozens of nieces and nephews in the United States and Taiwan whose lives he personally touched.
Fang-Lan Wang Kuo passed away peacefully in her sleep on March 31, 2021 at the age of 83. She was born in Taichung, Taiwan on February 12,1938, the second of five children of Mr. Hsi-Tsung Wang, and accountant, and Mrs. Tsai-Fang Chen Wang, a teacher, midwife and founder and director of the Fashion Private School at Home in Taipei, Taiwan.
Fang-Lan was born in the Year of the Tiger, and it showed in her fierce determination and drive throughout her life. Growing in wartime Taiwan as the oldest sister among five siblings, she was responsible for taking care of her brothers and sisters as their parents worked. Still, she managed to excel at school, graduating from Taipei Second Girl's Middle High School and earning admissions t National Taiwan University. She graduated in 1960 from National Taiwan University's Nursing School and immediately started working as a trainee nurse at the National Taiwan University Hospital. In 1963, she came to the United States to pursue a master's degree in nursing at the University of California, San Francisco, graduating in 1966. She her teaching career, as an associate professor of nursing at Bronx Community College. Moving to Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey in 1976 as an assistant professor. In 1981, she took a part-time teaching position at Passaic Country (NJ) Community College so she herself could return to being a student. In 1985, while working full-time as the Director of the Nursing Program at Passaic County Community College, she earned her doctorate in education from Columbia University's Teacher's College. She has trained hundreds of nurses throughout her career and, in 1993, became the first Asian American elected as a national representative to the American Nurses Association Congress for Nursing Practice. She retired from teaching in 2004 after 34 years as an educator and moved to San Juan Capistrano, California to join her husband.
Fang-Lan first met her husband, Dr. Kuan-Chu Kuo, while working as a trainee nurse at the National Taiwan University Hospital. The young doctor was so taken by the pretty nurse that he pursued her to the United States, courting her over two years until she finally agreed to marry him. They married in San Francisco, California in 1966 and moved to New Haven, Connecticut where Dr. Kuo was finishing his medical residency. She gave birth to two daughters, Lisa in 1967 and Erica in 1968, and began teaching to support her family while her husband finished his medical training. Even as she built her career and furthered her education and battled breast cancer, her first priority was always her family. She was supportive and steady force that held her family together and propelled her daughters to become independent and self-sufficient.
Though she had a tiger-spirit in pursing her career and caring for her family, what people most will remember about Fang-Lan are her generous heart, her sense of humor, and her faith in God. She always put others before herself and never complained and never wanted others to worry about her. She had a playful side and was always ready to make funny face or tell a joke to make someone laugh. She was proud of the women her daughters had become; proud of the man her young daughter married, Thomas Sang Kim; and especially proud of her only grandchild, Noelani Kuo Kim, telling anyone and everyone of how clever and smart she is. But above all, she loved her husband and spent the last days of her life taking care of him and constantly worrying about him as his health declined.
Professor Kuo passed away peacefully during the early morning hours of March 31, 2021, at the age of 83. All those who knew her will remember her. Her surviving family members-her husband, Kuan Chu; her daughters Lisa and Erica; her son-in-law, Thomas; her granddaughter Noelani; and her siblings, Mynor King, Huey-Lan Wang Chen, Ai-Lan Wang, and Hua-Nan Wang-take comfort in knowing her soul is at rest in Heaven where she waits for her beloved husband to join her.
Memorial contributions may be made to The Professor Fang-Lan Wang Kuo Nursing Fund at PCCCfoundation.org/donate (under special instructions, please indicate your gift is for "the Professor Fang-Lan Wang Kuo Nursing Fund")
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