Name Chih Sun | Fields Physicist | |
Born May 6, 1923
Anhui, China ( 1923-05-06 ) Residence China (1923-49)
USA (1949-2007) Nationality Chinese (1923-65)
American (1965-2007) Died January 5, 2007, Coral Springs, Florida, United States | ||
Chih Ree Sun (May 6, 1923 – January 5, 2007) was a Chinese American physicist most noted with breaking new ground in modern physics as a professor at the State University of New York in Albany, he danced his way through life and spent time writing Chinese poetry after he retired.
Contents
Biography
He was a great grandfather.
Physics in Early Years
Born in the Anhui province in southeast China, Mr. Sun started college in Kunming, but later went to India during World War II.
He then taught and conducted research for 40 years in high-energy physics, retiring from the State University of New York at Albany in 1995 after serving on the faculty for 27 years. Mr. Sun moved to Florida the following year.
Arts in Retirement
After retired from physics field, he became author of Chinese poetry whose love for ballroom dancing took him across Broward and Palm Beach counties.
A devoted member of the Coral Springs Chinese Cultural Association, Chih-Ree Sun also taught t'ai chi classes there with his wife, Felicia. But after a two-year struggle with kidney and lung cancer, he died, aged 83.
"He was a fighter. He would fight to the last minute, the last second," said family friend Sophie Chen, a Coral Springs resident and active member of the Chinese Cultural Association. "He was very strong-willed. It is a great loss for us. We are definitely going to miss him a lot."
Determined to help children attend Chinese school at the Chinese Cultural Association, Mr. Sun requested a scholarship fund be established in his name there shortly before his death, his wife said.
He also published a collection of more than 200 original poems shortly before he died, his wife said. In one poem, he told of how his older sister gave him the last space inside a bomb shelter and waited outside while the Japanese attacked during the second Sino-Japanese war. Both survived.
Proceeds from the book's sale will go to the scholarship fund, she said.