John Teai Chew

John Teai Chew born, October 11, 1927, in Chicago, Illinois. John passed away to be with his heavenly maker on January 12, 2022 in Arlington, Texas. When at the age of 2, along with his siblings, John went to China, because his mother's visa ran out. There he went to school from kindergarten to 8th grade in Canton, China, and stayed there until he was 12. His mother sent him and his brother, Roy, with 30 other refugees to go back to America due to the Japanese invasion in 1939. They left Sun Wui to Macau Island which took 6 days of walking. Then from Macau Island they took sam pans to Hong-Kong and boarded the the SS Coolidge that brought them back to America. His father met him and Roy in San Francisco and boarded a train to go back to Chicago. John loved school and completed the 3rd grade to the 8th grade in couple years so he could catch up with other students his age. Because of his academic accomplishment, John was chosen to be a guest of the Sun Times at the Philadelphia launching of the New Chicago Cruiser.

While in high school, John met and married the love of his life Bonnie Dodson. To that union, John and Bonnie had five children Sherri, Nanette, Bea Jaye, John Jr and Lorin. He was a Staff Sargent in the Air Force during the Korean War as a trainer, and a Teletype mechanic that sent messages to the top commanders. John spoke two languages Cantonese and English.

John earned his professional engineering degree in the late 1950's. With his degree, he helped remodel the Chicagoland area working for the world renowned Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as a mechanical engineer. Some of his major engineering projects included the historic Rookery building which Frank Lloyd Wright worked on years before, buildings in Chinatown, and on blast furnaces at the steel mills. His engineering skills extended to the Sears corporate office building in New York, and out of the country to a terminal in the King Fahd International Airport in Saudi Arabia. In 1987 the Government asked Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to pick their top mechanical engineers to work on the super conducting super collider, and John was one of them.

In 1988, John moved to Dallas, Texas to work on the super collider, which was stopped in 1993. He decided to stay and retire in Texas.

His hobbies were fishing, hunting, playing cards, mahjong and going to the flea market. He liked to cook and he loved his family.

John was preceded in death by his father, Kei Wing Chew, and mother, See Wong Chew; brothers, Philip and Roy; sisters, Nancy, June, May, and daughter Sherri. He leaves to cherish his memory, Nanette (Scott) Williams, Bea Jaye Chew, John Jr. (Sue) Chew and Lorin (Greg) Hollingshead; along with his grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren and a host of nieces and nephews.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.ChapelHillGardensSouth.com for the Chew family.