Obituary of Thung Shing Leu

Thung-Shing Leu, 80 (July I 0, 1932 - December 08, 2010) Thung-Shing Leu was born on July IO, 1932 in Yujin township, Tainan county, Taiwan. He passed on peacefully in his sleep on December 08, 20IO at the Bridgewater Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Binghamton, New York. He suffered from pneumonia which eventually led to cardiac arrest. Thung-Shing was born to the former Yujin mayor Tsung Leu and his mother Xi Wen preceded him in death. One older sister also preceded him in death in 2009. One older sister, one older brother, and two younger brothers survive him. Thung-Shing is survived by his wife Fang Mei Leu; son Frank Leu, Ph.D., daughter-in-law Karen Leu, J.D. Esq ., granddaughter Amelie Leu and grandson Caden Leu; daughter Aileen L Pan, M.A. and son-in-law Jingfong Pan, M.A., with granddaughters Margaret Pan and Peggy Pan and grandson Ethan Pan; daughter Lisa Cheng, M.A. and son-in-law Leo Cheng, M.D., with grandson Ryan Cheng. Thung-Shing graduated from Taiwan Naval Academy and majored in mechanical engineering. Thung-Shing spoke fluent Taiwanese, Japanese, and Mandarin, and was proficient in English. Later he served in the Taiwanese Navy as an officer from age 24 to 39. Thung-Shing was married to Fang-Mei Leu at the age of 34 (1964) and resided in Zuoying district, Kao-Shiung city, Taiwan. While in the Navy he wrote a thesis on improving naval warfare and organizational strategy and received letters of recognition from both the Taiwanese Navy and the United States Navy for this work. He served as a lieutenant colonel on a naval battleship and took part in the famous combat between Taiwan and China known as the ''823 battle" in 1958, characterized by 24 hours of raining bullets and bombs. Thung-Shing joined the Naval Academy in the hope to participate in creating a true democratic Taiwan by working with ' the establishment - the Nationalist party. At the time, the Nationalist Party unjustly prosecuted many pro-democracy supporters for holding on to its dictatorship. Unfortunately, Thung-Shing was one of the political casualties and lost his rank in the Navy. At the time of Thung-Shing's departure from the Navy, he served as a lieutenant colonel. After Navy, in the next few years, Thung-Shing worked as a manager for a couple of Japanese manufacturing companies in Taiwan, utilizing his language, mechanical engineering, and leadership skills learned from the Naval Academy. However, his ambition drove him to start his own business in partnership with his younger brother, Thung-Hui Leu (or Suguro in Japanese), a successful entrepreneur living in Japan. The company developed methods to extract medicinal compounds from a pig's spleen. The company eventually closed due to a senior employee embezzling the operational fund in early 1983. At the same time, he was faced with the decision either to move the family a few hundred miles away to Japan, where he would be most comfortable with its language and culture while staying close to his siblings, or move thousands of miles away to the United States where he was not familiar with its language and culture. The opportunities were limited to Thung-Shing in the United States due to his age now 53 language and foreign education barriers, together with his wife, they decided to move the family to the United States with the help of his brother-in-law Fang-Gui Chiu, M.A .. They moved to the United Stales for the sake of children's education and future. Thung-Shing, as the first generation immigrant in the United States at such old age faced hardships, but he seldom looked back and was always optimistic. In I992, at age 62, Thung-Shing undergone a brain surgery to remove a pituitary tumor. In a letter written to his brothers, he encouraged them to join him to seek opportunities in the United States. In 1999, at the age of 69, he was still enthusiastic about learning and was in the process of putting an application together to study graduate engineering at SUNY Binghamton. Unfortunately, he suffered a series of strokes subsequently rendering his entire right side of the body paralyzed and unable to eat solid food, drink liquid, and speak clearly. As a result, he was admitted to the Bridgewater Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Binghamton. NY, where he received care and physical therapy. Despite this significant setback, Thung-Shing's spirit remained high and gradually regained his physical strength. Mathematically inclined and equipped with a curious mind, Thung-Shing enjoyed many games, such as Bl GO, Chinese chess, and Weiqi; he loved to watch History, Discovery, The Learning Channel, and PBS television programs. He also enjoyed watching sports, mainly baseball and horse racing. His favorite baseball teams were the New York and Binghamton Mets. Up to his last few months, he was an avid reader of newspapers and books.