Joan Shih-Chiung Tai

Joan Shih-Chiung Tai (born Hsu)

“Commitment, Dedication, Compassion, Service, Love”

Joan departed Kirkland, WA, Saturday, 21 June, 2014, 11:10 p.m., at the Evergreen Hospice. She was 75 years of age and had fought the previous months bravely against Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Despite the challenges posed by this disease, she was motivated to take part in a clinical trial of a modern approach to fighting cancer and took pride in knowing that her experience might contribute to and benefit medical research.

Born on January 7th, 1939, in Kunming, China, to Ginger Lin Hsu and M.P. Hsu, she was the eldest of three children — her brothers Michael and James to follow soon thereafter.

Joan was known to her friends and family to be an exceptional talent, showing extraordinary abilities in scholastics, sports and cultural arts. Her scholastic ability brought her to study pharmacy at the National Taiwan University, and then to post-graduate study in pharmacology at the University of California at San Francisco.

Her children remember their mother to be good at a wide range of games, puzzles, and physical activities that kept them happily challenged and occupied in both body and brain. She was dedicated to ensuring that her children were exposed to wonderful things that the world had to offer — natural and historical sites, performing arts, athletics, and very interesting extracurricular courses and activities.

Joan chose pharmacy and pharmacology as a profession originally. But after living in Southern California and then Bellevue, WA, in the 1970s, she set her sights on and took the initiative of a re-orientation into computer sciences. She worked as a programmer and analyst for nearly 15 years before retiring and dedicating herself to a wide range of service and volunteer activities, among them fund-raising for the Kin On Nursing Home, hands-on support for the Eastside chapter of the National Association of Mental Illness, as Community Advisor to Evergreen Hospital Medical Center, and as a board member of several organizations.

Having resided in the beautiful Northwest for more than 30 years, Joan got to know many wonderful people, and enjoyed the privilege of forging and maintaining enriching friendships, old and new, through her various activities, affiliations and extensive travel. These friends and those with whom she has stayed in touch since her school and university days contributed ever so greatly to her enjoyment of life, a life for which she expressed recently a grand appreciation.

Joan is survived by her devoted husband of 51 years, Harold, her brothers Michael and James Hsu and their families, her children Betty and Ray, her grandchildren Taima, Elliott, and Arie, as well as her son- and daughter-in-law Anders and Kari.

Joan, her contributions in myriad aspects of life and her always dynamic presence will be remembered fondly, and she will live on in our hearts.