IRENE YEN-PING, MY WIFE

It was on the campus of Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York that I met Irene for the first time. I was in the last year of my PhD program in the Electrical Engineering School, and she was beginning her master’s degree program in the Biochemistry department. 

Soon after the start of the semester, we started dating, and I found this smart, feisty, always upbeat, and enthusiastic person, rather irresistible. We discovered we have shared interests in music, art, and even sports. At the same time, we love to tell each other about our earlier traumatic life with our parents in China during the Japanese war.

After the war, both our families left China in 1947. In a few years both our families settled in New York State. Irene’s in Saratoga, where her father was a professor at Skidmore College and mine in Harrison, near New York City.

In Saratoga, Irene attended high school and became “Americanized”. She learned to speak English like a native and she learned to mix with different groups of Americans. Many became her good friends. During this time, she also managed to take some piano lessons from a music teacher.

Upon graduating from high school, Irene attended Barnard College, the affiliated woman’s college of Columbia University. She found that her high school education did not prepare her for the high Ivy League standard of Barnard. She had to work extra hard in her 4 years there. But she prevailed and earned her bachelor’s degree.

Irene then got a job in Parke Davis Company (now a part of Pfizer) in Detroit. She found out what it was like working in a large American company – that those with bachelor’s degrees were assigned to menial positions! Thus, she decided to go for a master’s degree. She applied to Cornell and was accepted.

We had a great last year in Cornell. I had a fellowship then and didn’t have to pay tuition and fees, so I deliberately delayed my PhD program for half a year. We were together whenever we had time. Among our favorite places in Cornell were the two gorges, one on each side of the campus. Each gorge has a clear stream flowing down the middle, surrounded by steep cliffs. Narrow paths are carved out of each cliff, and we felt close to nature when we walk along them.

Occasionally, I splurged and took her to a top restaurant near Ithaca, using the money from my fellowship. On one of these occasions, I mustered up my courage and proposed!

Our engagement and marriage soon followed. We spent our honeymoon on a trip to New England, including Vermont and New Hampshire. Meanwhile, I accepted a job in Bell Labs in New Jersey. At the end of our honeymoon, we took residence in an apartment in Madison, New Jersey.

Irene got a job in Warner Lambert Company (now also a part of Pfizer) in Morris Plains. We then purchased our first house near Morris Plains.

In our first house, we started to raise a family. Olivia was born in 1966, Eugene in 1967, and Brian in 1969. Three kids coming in such quick succession was very tough on Irene, but she would just grin and bear it!

While raising the kids Irene could not continue her job in Warner-Lambert. But she already had made many friends among our neighbors. She was able to satisfy her teaching instinct by teaching the neighboring housewives to cook Chinese dishes.

When I was transferred to the Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey, Irene saw a chance to become a music teacher. She did it by taking lessons herself from a well-known teacher, then joining the Shore Music Educators Association (SMEA) and began her life as a piano teacher.

As a piano teacher she was able to draw out what’s best in each student. She was personable, understanding but strict. The students found fulfillment under her tutelage. Even after she stopped teaching music for many years, she still had a long string of students calling or writing to her every year, desiring a chance to interact with her again.

In my second year in Bell Labs, the company sent me to attend a technical conference in Basle, Switzerland, and I took Irene along. That was the beginning of our wanderlust. The very next year, we returned to Europe on our own to tour France and Switzerland. Whenever we had a chance, or an excuse, we would take off for another trip. Thus, we have gone back to Europe many times, visiting Spain, Scandinavia, Austria, and Italy. We also had returned to China eight or nine times, plus trips to Hongkong/Macao and Singapore, Thailand in Asia. Not to mention Scandinavia, Spain, Austria, and Italy in Europe. We also had the good fortune to be in Brazil and Argentina during FIFA World Cup. We have also been to many places in Canada.

After my retirement, we decided to move to California. While both of us were already over eighty years old, Irene insisted we should drive out to the West, so we can take in many of the notable sights in the US. So, in 2013, Irene and I drove our Toyota Camry the entire distance from New Jersey to California.

After we Settled in California, Irene looked for a teaching job. Unfortunately, her eighty-year-old fingers were now too stiff to play the piano. She found the Fremont library sponsors English as a second language courses. Irene thus began a new role as English teacher to foreign immigrants. She was highly successful in this new role, with many foreign students expressing their gratitude.

This year I am eighty-nine years old, and Irene just one and half years younger. I always hope I can live into the nineties. Since Irene seems to be more energetic and active than me, I thought she would certainly outlive me. Alas, this was not to be! All of a sudden, she was gone! My wife of sixty-two years is no more! Ater a few days of shock, I want to tally those qualities for which I and the world will remember her:

Always positive

Always helpful

Always seeing the best in everyone

Show true love for family, friends, and acquaintances

Inspire others to be ever better

A great teacher

A loving wife

This is Irene Yen-Ping Chu Hsu

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