Anyone who met Jack Liang will remember his charm and easy smile. His welcoming grin signaled an openness, a desire to help others that was rooted in pure selflessness. Even throughout his four-year journey living with pancreatic cancer and GIST, a soft tissue sarcoma (last two years), he always made time to express his gratitude, for the life he led and to the incredible medical team who supported him along the way. He died in hospice at his home on March 18, 2021, at the age of 73, surrounded by his family, having offered his final smiles as reassurances that his love would continue.
Born on June 27, 1947, in Ithaca, NY, Jack learned the value of generosity through his parents and grandmother, a multigenerational household that welcomed international friends, relatives, and other Chinese students into their home. His father, a civil engineer and professor at Cornell, sparked a lifelong interest in traveling, something that Jack vowed to pass on to his own children one day. Jack graduated from Cornell University with his BA and MPA, served in the United States Army Medical Corps during the Vietnam War and was stationed at Walter Reed General Hospital. He then started his career in New York City, working in hospital administration at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He followed his boss to St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, where he worked for eight years, starting as an associate administrator and rising to vice president.
Jack’s move to Michigan changed the trajectory of his life, most significantly when he spied the love of his life standing in the hospital gift shop, on break from her work as a dietitian. Following a short courtship, Jack married Debbie in 1982, starting a new life with the person who would become his best friend, tennis partner, Rummikub competitor, co-traveler, and mother of their three children. They were also business partners, running a successful photography business for ten years and filling many households in metro Detroit with priceless wedding photos and family portraits. Seeking a more predictable work schedule, primarily to spend more time with his children on weekends, Jack returned to corporate life as a senior vice president for Presbyterian Villages of Michigan and later finished his career at Huron-Clinton Metroparks as their administrator for development and community relations. His talent at networking and building relationships extended into his community as well, where he was a leader within the Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Leadership Detroit, and numerous other organizations. Jack was an active and enthusiastic member of Grosse Pointe Memorial Church, serving on numerous councils and volunteering locally and abroad in Honduras, Malawi, and Cuba.
Jack was always quick to say that his proudest accomplishment was his 38-year marriage and raising his children and seeing them grow up into “loving and caring human beings.” He and Debbie lived in the same house for nearly four decades and actively created a home filled with love and laughter: leaving daily notes left on the kitchen counter before work, never missing any of the kids’ activities, hosting countless dinner parties, and greeting Debbie with terms of endearment, like “Hi Love” or “Hi Beautiful.” Birthdays and special occasions were commemorated with personalized poems, a guaranteed source of laughter with his generous use of questionable rhymes. Jack lived up to his earlier promise and took his family on numerous travels, most notably a round-the-world trip for eight weeks in 1999. He also maintained his close friendships with great pride, with people of all ages and from all stages of his life. Golf, breakfast meetings, college sporting events, men’s groups at church, and personal phone calls helped turn these relationships into treasured lifelong friendships. He taught his kids that people don’t remember what you say but they remember how you made them feel. Jack embodied that motto and had a stadium’s worth of fans, supporting him inning after inning of his cancer journey, cheering for the man who made them laugh and feel loved.
Jack is survived by his wife Debbie, his three children, Michael (partner Mark), Amy (husband John), and Anna, and his first grandchild, due in May. He is predeceased by his parents, Ta and Daisy Liang. A celebration of life service will be held later in the year at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church. Details will be announced at a future date. Donations in Jack's memory may be made to the Van Elslander Cancer Center - “Care for Needy Patients (VECC Needy Patient Fund)”. Please make checks payable to Ascension St John Foundation, indicate the name of the fund in the memo, and mail to: 19251 Mack Avenue Suite 102, Grosse Pointe Woods, MI 48236-2881. Online donations can also be made at:
https://stjohnprovfoundations.org/donate (Select Other for fund designation, and indicate the fund described above.)
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