Mr. Richard Ling Cherng Liu

Liu Ling Cherng was born in Hebei, China in 1926, and later emigrated from Taipei, Taiwan to Vancouver, Canada in April 1970 after a two year tenured professorship in Singapore. Richard passed away peacefully at home on December 3, 2011 at the age of 85 with his loved ones at his side. He is survived by his Wife Sharon, Daughter Vivian (Greg Moffatt), Sons Winfred (Anne Yu), and Donald (Alice Wong), and Grandchildren Clare, Adam, Curtis, and Millicent. Richard was very proud of his children and his Grandchildren and he treasured all the time he spent with them. He will be deeply missed by his family and friends.

Memorial service will be held Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 2:00 pm at Forest Lawn Funeral Home.

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WINFRED'S TRIBUTE:

My beloved father, Richard Liu, 劉令澂先生, passed away peacefully at home, at the age of 85. He was buried this morning. (Dec 10, 2011)

His high school was in TienJing. (天津工商学院附屬中學). He received a bachelor’s degree in “International Trade” from the National College of Oriental Studies in NanJing (南京国立东方语專的國際貿易學士學位). He got that degree luckily just before civil war broke out in China. He left Nanjing to go to Taiwan in 1949.

As the only child in his family, he regretted, all his life, of not having taken good care of his mom when he left home to go to TW. Now. He is back with his mom and I am sure he will tell her all about her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Arriving in wartime TW, my dad worked as a translator for the US Civil Service Commission. He married my mom in 1955. And had the first 2 of 3 children, that’s Vivian and I. In 1958, without his wife and kids, he went to Pennsylvania , USA, for another bachelor degree in Economics from Lincoln University. He then went on to the University of Oklahoma and received his master’s degree, also in Economics, in 1962. After graduation, he finally returned to Taiwan and was appointed the section chief at the Foreign Trade Department of the Central Trust of China (中央信托局的系主任). He then had his third child, Donald.

For many years, while he worked full time at the Central Trust during the day, he also held concurrent evening teaching posts as an assistant professor at two local colleges. Dang Sui College of business Administration (淡水工商管理專科學校的副教授) and in the department of business admin at TW’s Cheung Ching University (台灣中興大學夜間部的副教授). I don’t think it was for the pay that he worked so, so hard at the three jobs. To him, teaching is a most honorable career. He truly enjoyed it and took great pride in it.

In 1969, he got a job offer in Singapore as a senior lecturer and the acting head of the department of Business Admin in Ngee Ann Technical College (新加坡義安工藝学院工商管理系的代理主任). So. Our whole family moved to Singapore. After a couple of years there, he realized that Singaporean citizens receive priority over foreigners in entering local universities. That worried him a lot because, good university education for his children was most important to him. So the entire family immigrated, this time, to Vancouver, in 1970. He told us that another reason for the move from Singapore was that he really didn’t want his children to speak English with a heavy Singaporean accent, for the rest of their lives…. Well, after all that, I still have an accent.

My dad was not able to continue his teaching career in Canada and that bothered him quite a bit for the first few years. But he concluded that the sacrifice was worth it for the sake of his 3 children’s education.

After his passing, I opened his personal safety deposit box at his bank. He obviously stored some items that are dearest to his heart. There wasn’t a single item of any monetary value. First, there was the certificate of his mother’s grave in China. And an old black-and-white portrait of her. The rest are pretty well all his academic records, degrees, teaching contracts, employment appointments, letters of recommendation, etc. That’s who he was.

My dad was also fiercely patriotic. We chatted often, over the years, about Chinese politics and the progress being made over there. He was also very much a family man. He just totally lit up whenever he saw his grand kids. He consumed most of his energy in his later years, taking great care of my mom through her many years of diabetes, up until he was immobilized himself. He would definitely want my mom to be well taken care of, after his passing.

My dad meant more to us than words can ever say. Now, he is at a happier place, free from aging and physical illnesses, looking peacefully at us all. He will always be with us. In time, our tears will dry… but our love for him will live on, forever.