Hung-Wen (Luke) Tsao

January 5, 1933 – April 13, 2022

After several weeks of harrowing struggle in home hospice my father, Hung-Wen, finally passed away peacefully and painlessly at his home in Laguna Woods, California on April 13, 2022. He was 89 years old, of which he exclaimed at one point “I can’t believe I am still alive!”

Hung-Wen was born in Beijing, China on January 5, 1933 into a well-known political family of the Nationalist Government (Kuomintang, KMT) during a turbulent time in China’s history, when it was fighting both a civil war with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and an international war with Japan. His father was Teh-Hsuan Tsao, the last elected senator of Shenyang/Mukden (located in the northeast of China) and an outspoken member of the Control Yuan branch of government. His mother was Ya-Nan Chang, a schoolteacher. Although he was the 1st born of 8 children to his mother, Hung-Wen was also considered the 5th born out of 17 children to his father who had 4 wives. To escape the bombing from the Japanese near the coast, he was sent with some of his siblings to attend boarding schools in Sichuan province which is located more inland, towards the center of China. So you can see he probably experienced a lot of drama growing up.

As the CCP was eventually victorious over the KMT in the Chinese civil war, he fled with his family and with the KMT government to Taiwan. There he attended Tamkang University, a junior college in Dansui District, and graduated in 1953 with an Associate' s degree in English literature. He was about to take on a job working for the United States as a translator for Americans stationed in South Korea, but instead got an opportunity to attend undergraduate college in the United States on a student visa. In 1954, he entered Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York and graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Science in Math. From there he went down to Tallahassee, Florida to study for a master's degree in math at Florida State University, but left the program after one year in order to take a job in 1961 with IBM (International Business Machines), at their Times Square office in New York City, working as a computer programmer and mathematician. He was soon transferred upstate to their Research & Development offices in Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1972, he became a naturalized United States citizen at age 39. He worked for IBM for 28 years, being inducted into their Quarter Century Club in 1986 and retiring in 1990.

Soon after he started to work for IBM, he met his future wife, Ming-Hsi (Clara) Mar, through his sister Theresa and mutual friends Chung-Li Ling and May Lee, when he would visit them in New York City on the weekends. A double date with Chung-Li and May on Long Island’s Jones Beach led to a first date at the New York City Central Park skating rink. Neither of them knew how to skate so that gave them a good reason to hold on to each other. On April 27, 1963, they were married at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church on Manhattan’s upper east side, and remained married for just short of 59 years. Together, they had a son Thomas and a daughter Judy (that’s me). He enjoyed being a doting Gong Gong (grandpa) to his 4 grandchildren, showering them with hong bao (gift money) almost every time he saw them!

Although Hung-Wen was baptized into the Catholic faith sometime before he arrived in the United States (perhaps when he was in Taiwan), he was never actually a practicing Catholic. However, he was someone who tried to live his life with integrity and honesty as best he knew so when it came to faith in God he wanted to resist any pretense to believe just because others around him believed. Despite his resistance, God found him in the end. Due to heart failure, he entered hospice care at home and had to suffer through several bouts of intense terminal agitation before finally accepting a commitment prayer recited over him by 3 of his caregivers (me, my mother and his caregiver Gil) standing around his hospice bed. Shortly thereafter, he was able to pass peacefully into God’s presence on April 13, 2022.

He is preceded in death by his son Thomas Cliff Tsao, parents Teh-Hsuan Tsao and Ya-Nan Chang, Auntie Yah-Chuan Kai, sister Helen Tu and brother-in-law Chu-Ping Tu, sister Theresa Wang and brother-in-law Yun-Shen Wang, sister Agnes Tsao, sister Cecelia Tsao, brother John Tsao, brother Bruce Tsao, as well as 4 other siblings who did not survive their childhood.

He is followed in death by his sister Julia Chiu.

He is survived by his wife Clara Ming-Hsi Tsao, daughter Judy Tsao Wang and son-in-law Frank Yu-Heng Wang, grandson Christopher Wang, granddaughter Emily Wang, granddaughter Waverly Wang, granddaughter Olivia Wang, sister Rose Wong and brother-in-law Mitchel Wong, sister Maria Goretti Tsao, sister-in-law Irene Tsao, sister-in-law Fang-Zi Tsao, brother Joseph Tsao and sister-in-law Lily Lawn-Tsao, brother Alex Tsao and sister-in-law Sou-Tung Tsao, brother James Tsao and sister-in-law Susan Tsao, niece Tricia To (Trang), nephew Glenn Scott (Laura Reiher), niece Jacqueline Scott Sheid, nephew Michael Wong (Wendy), nephew Shaun Wong (Christine), nephew Patrick Wong (Cherry), nephew Shannon Wong (Betty), nephew Paul Chiu (Sharon Juang), niece May F. Chiu, nephew Andrew Tsao (Carol), niece Beatrice Tsao (Mark Blanchfield), nephew Alan Tsao, nephew David Tsao, niece Elsa Tsao, niece Joanne Tsao (Kit Wilson), nephew Lee Tsao (Wendy), nephew Hwa Tsao (Helen), nephew Jim Tsao (Danielle Schwartz), many grandnieces and grandnephews and many more relatives through my mom's side of the family. We would like to also give a special acknowledgement to two of his hospice caregivers who took such loving care of him those last weeks in hospice: Gil (Angel) Perez and Amy Romero. They treated him as if he was their own father and we are forever grateful to them.

Note: The following is a copy of the prayer of commitment through which my father was saved. It was given to me by Gemma, our main hospice nurse.

Dear Jesus, you have promised that if I believe in you, everything I’ve ever done wrong will be forgiven, I will learn the purpose of my life, and you will accept me into your eternal home in heaven one day.

“I confess my sin, and I receive you into my life as my Lord and Savior. Today, I’m turning every part of my life over to you. I want to follow you and do what you tell me to do.

“Jesus, I am grateful for your love and for your sacrifice that makes it possible for me to join you in heaven. I know I don’t deserve it. And I thank you that I don’t have to earn or work for my salvation, because I know that is impossible. I want to use the rest of my life to serve you instead of serving myself. I humbly commit my life to you, and I ask you to save me and accept me into your family. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”