Born in 1922 in Xingning, Guangdong Province, Yu An was the tenth of eleven children of Lo Ren Fu, a pastor and second-generation Christian, in the rural southern China. Yu An studied shipbuilding at Tong Ji University, which at the time was located in Sichuan. A year after World War II ended, Tong Ji univer-sity moved back to Shanghai, and Yu An went home for a short visit on his way to Shanghai to continue his studies. He never dreamed it would be the last time he would see his parents alive.
In 1947, after graduating from Tong Ji, Yu An went to work for Taiwan’s state-owned shipbuilding corporation. He intended to return to China after only a few years, but the Communist Party took control of China in 1949, forcing him to remain in Taiwan with no way of communicating with his family. Nevertheless, Yu An continued to work hard and became one of the few chosen by the Tai-wanese government to receive U.S.-sponsored training in U.S. and Japan. Yu An met his future wife, Wen Wei, in Taiwan. The two continued correspondence while Yu An was overseas, and in 1956, a year after Yu An returned to Taiwan, they were married. Soon after, Yu An joined C.Y.Tung’s Island Navigation Corp. (Golden Peak Maritime) as a naval architect. In 1964, the company as-signed Yu An to new shipbuilding projects in Japan; his wife and four daughters joined him in Sasebo, Japan four years later. In 1977, the family again relocated to Hong Kong, where Yu An worked at the company’s headquarters and over-saw new projects in various countries.
Throughout this time, Yu An refrained from contacting his family in China out of fear of causing them harm because of his previous ties to the Taiwanese gov-ernment. It wasn’t until 1987 that he was finally able to reunite with his family after 40 years of separation. His mother, Diao Dao Zhen, had passed away in 1950 and his father passed in 1975. Yu An’s greatest regrets in life centered around his absence from his parents: not being by his mother’s side when she passed, not being with his father to comfort him when he endured persecution and hardship in his old age, and not being able to attend their funerals.
Yu An and Wen Wei moved to the U.S. in 1989 to be near their children and grandchildren. It brought Yu An great joy to take four of his grandchildren to China to visit his siblings and the grave of his parents. Unfortunately, his plan to accompany his youngest granddaughter to China never came to fruition. Three days after celebrating his 89th birthday, surrounded by family members in the comfort of his daughter’s home, Yu An passed away peacefully in his sleep. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, four daughters, and five grandchildren.
Yu An is remembered by his family as the most caring, generous, forgiving, de-voted, gentle, and selfless father/grandfather anyone could ever wish for.While living in Hong Kong, Yu An attended Church of the Nazarene with his wife. When the Chinese-speaking church was established, rain or shine, Yu An took the bus to attend the service. He was a tireless church volunteer; he sup-ported church activities and used his computer skills, which he learned with de-termination when he was almost 80 years old, for church publications. In addi-tion to his devotion to his family and church, Yu An further served his commu-nity by volunteering weekly at Kirkland Library for ten years, not missing a day without advance notice.
Throughout his life, Yu An fulfilled his father’s mission of spreading God’s love and he followed his mother’s teaching based on Second Timothy 2:15, “Do your best to please God. Be a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed. Teach the message of truth correctly.” He did this by being a living example of a devoted Christian: quietly and joyfully living for God, without any preaching, indoctri-nating, pride, or pretense. Arrangements entrusted to Sunset Hills Funeral Home, Bellevue, WA.
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