Wayne Wu, an eternally giving man, beloved father, and innovator of options trading, died on August 8, 2023, at his home in Pipersville, PA. He is remembered for his generosity, his passions, his dedication to his family, and his love of all animals. “I never met a dog I didn’t like,” went his Instagram bio. “People not so much!” But this was hyperbole, because Wayne loved people–– underdogs, especially, and anyone he could lend a hand to–– and people truly loved Wayne.

Born on April 19, 1959, in Taipei, Taiwan, Wayne immigrated to New Jersey with his family in 1971 at age 12 without knowing a word of English. Naturally industrious, he worked multiple jobs while balancing his studies at Ridgewood High School. He developed a love of Yukio Mishima and Steely Dan, along with football and weightlifting, while he also worked after school pumping gas, parking cars at an upscale restaurant, and selling clothes at a menswear store called Mac Hugh’s. Though he excelled on the football field, he quit to work his third job at the gas station, and his coach pulled up after school one day, asking him to come back. It was at Mac Hugh’s that he impressed his manager and customers with his excellent memory and his agile grasp of math while calculating inventory instantaneously. His boss offered him the role of manager if he were to forgo college, but Wayne continued his studies while working at the store. When a family friend of his girlfriend’s came in, he couldn’t believe how rapidly Wayne updated the inventory in his head, and after a series of similar interactions, decided to hire him on Wall Street when he was nineteen years old. To trade on the floor of the American Stock Exchange, one had to buy a seat. For a time, Wayne worked at the stock exchange during the day and continued his classes at Rutgers Cook College at night–– he was studying agriculture–– but soon he left school, and just two years later, Wayne’s boss bought him a seat. He was twenty-one, the youngest person yet to have a seat on the floor of the stock exchange.

His astronomical ascent was one he was perfectly suited for with his quick mind and gut instincts, and Wayne became a pioneer in the trading of stocks and index options. He was the lead market maker for the most actively traded options such as the QQQ and SPY. He led floor operations for the American, New York, and Chicago Stock Exchanges on behalf of Bear Wagner Specialists, and later for Integral Derivatives. He’s not just remembered for his natural ability at the work, but his impressive adaptability to a drastically changing field from Wall Street in the eighties to the reconfiguration of trading under the advent of information technology.

He didn’t hesitate to bring people up with him as he rose. Never one to kick the ladder out from under him, he delighted in making the rungs as clear as possible, in bringing people up and treating them well. His loyalty was famous. Once you were loved in Wayne’s eyes, you were taken care of forever. And his influential fashion made waves wherever he went. Friends from work remember him always wearing something innovative and unexpected–– his sharp suits, his beloved Stubbs and Wootton loafers, black turtleneck sweaters on casual days–– and how these gradually became adopted by all those around him.

Wayne loved the beach and the water, especially St. John, where he shared many vacations with his loved ones. He was a devoted and thoughtful son who called his mother, Emily, every morning at nine AM. He stayed close to his mother, visited her often, and brought her on vacations to St. John and the Cayman Islands. He was a loving brother to his older sisters, Jenny and Vivian; and a proud uncle of his niece, Lily. In 1986, Wayne married his high school girlfriend, Sarah Perkins, and became a father to a son, Cory, and a daughter, Kyle. They later divorced, and in 1995, Wayne married Michelle Brogan, and welcomed his daughter, Brogan, and his son, Gavin.

The first part of that bio was true–– he never met a dog he didn’t like, and in his life, he loved a stream of them. His Chow Chow named Toby loved him and only him; his sweet Samoyed Lacey with her puff of white fur; his expressive and aromatic Bulldog Dre; his friendly and gentle Rottweiler Damien; and his second Bulldog, Bubbles, given to him by a friend at the dog park who saw how well Wayne cared for his dogs. No dog ate better than when they were under Wayne’s care–– their dog bowls were more often than not full of steak. Wayne truly loved all animals–– when his daughter’s pet snake died, leaving their live mice food behind, Wayne bought a cage and tended to the mice for months, unable to let even one creature go uncared for.

Nothing is remembered so avidly as Wayne’s generosity. Not a single person can remember him without recalling how giving he was. Friends fondly remember what it was like to walk into any place Wayne had been before–– people remembered him for his kindness. They greeted him with genuine delight and cleared tables to make room, because Wayne treated every person he encountered with authentic and tangible goodwill. And it is so well-known that it could almost go unsaid–– there was no better tipper than Wayne. If he could make a person feel valued, he did. He asked about families, remembered names, and brought small trinkets. If he knew you liked a certain kind of chocolate or liquor, he’d forever have it in his hands when he came to see you. When friends came to his house, their favorite drink or meal was waiting in the fridge. He was an excellent gift-giver, the type to remember the kind of snack you liked and then send it to you in bulk, and he never expected anything in return.

Wayne’s greatest joy was with his family. He was a present and devoted patriarch. It was in his kids’ lives that his generosity and his wide web of interests truly came alive. With his children, he nurtured a love of movies, from the classics to the foreign to musicals and romantic comedies; a love of food, from his oxtail chili to omakase sushi dinners to barbecue lunches by the pool to tripe and sweetbreads and ribeye steaks; a love of books from Yukio Mishima to Elena Ferrante to Truman Capote; a love of college basketball and the fantasy baseball league he spent hours on; and a love of shopping trips where he always found the most original piece in the store in the precise size of anyone it was intended for. He was an encouraging and undemanding father, whose only wish was for his children to be happy and fulfilled in their passions. He was not prescriptive of what path they took, only that they found one that brought them joy, and the potency of this wish can be seen in the different paths that his children did take–– with Cory’s career in jiu jitsu, Kyle’s career in writing, Brogan’s career in food, and Gavin’s career in film. There were no boilerplate paths under Wayne’s watch. One family could not bear this much fruit in creative and passionate endeavors without a patriarch who truly viewed success for his children in happiness on their own terms, and ensured that they knew it.

Wayne is survived by his wife, Michelle; his children, Cory, Kyle, Brogan, and Gavin; his mother, Emily; his sisters, Jenny and Vivian; his niece, Lily; and his dogs, Damien and Bubbles. He is preceded in death by his father, Kent, and his dogs, Toby, Lacey, and Dre. Wayne’s impact on the world will be expansively felt and intangibly marked through his love, generosity, and care. He will be eternally loved, endlessly missed, and forever remembered by all those who knew him.

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