Mr. Chao Hurng "Johnny" Wang

January 26, 1929 - February 4, 2014

On Tuesday, February 4, 2014, at 5:40 am, Mr. Chao Hurng "Johnny" Wang lost a very brief battle with cancer. He was 85. He's survived by his loving wife Julie, sons Jack, Joe, and Tom, daughter Diana, son-in-law Cary, daughters-in-law Jeannine and Stacy, beloved grandchildren Phoebe, Nicolas, Zoe, Lindsey, Sheridan, and Jonah. He died peacefully at home in Dublin, CA, surrounded by his family. Johnny was born on January 26, 1929 in Anhui, China. Orphaned early in life, he was raised by a loving aunt. At the age of 19, he left China with his younger brother for Taiwan in the midst of a bloody civil war. By fate and luck, Johnny entered the Chinese Nationalist Army and enrolled in the military language institute where he studied English. Although he never finished high school, Johnny was a disciplined student and quickly became fluent in English. He spent a good part of his twenty's as an interpreter attached to US Army officers stationed in Taiwan. There, he fell in love with America, a land where he had never been but was determined to see one day. During those years spent with US Army officers, he learned about the unique American traits of sense of humor, no nonsense, respect for law and order, individualism, pursuit of freedom, and self-determination. As a Captain in the Nationalist Army, he lived in a military housing complex. There, he fell in love again; this time with the beautiful daughter of a future Nationalist Army brigadier general. The two of them shared a common love for the American culture. They spent time together listening to American music, watching American movies, discussing American idioms. After leaving the military, he joined a friend and opened a clothing manufacturing business. His friend had the technical know-how, and he had the language skills to reach the world market. As the "made-in-Taiwan" wave began to swell, their business took off. Meanwhile, Johnny married his sweetheart and they started what would be a forty-nine year journey together. As his job took him to the foreign land of his dream for the first time and numerous times thereafter, Johnny began to make real plans to uproot and replant his family in America. In addition to those unique, inspiring American traits he saw in his US military officer friends, what he noticed during his business trips to America was how wonderfully children were treated there. This observation solidified his determination to bring his family to America in order to give his four children a better life. In 1979, after years of planning and a few unsuccessful prior attempts, the Wang family immigrated to America. Like millions of immigrants before him, Johnny chose to start a small business. For close to ten years, he was the owner and operator of Lady J Leathers in Bay Fair Mall in San Leandro. During that decade, he struggled to run the business, more often failing than succeeding. Nevertheless, he was determined to give his four children the opportunity to attend college and reach the American dream. By the time his youngest son graduated from college, Johnny had completed what he had set out to do. Although he was financially and physically spent, he began to enjoy the fruit of his hard work—all four children successfully employed with two of them married and the first of what would be six grandchildren nestled in his lap. As his children's families grew, like many immigrant grandparents, Johnny happily took on the role of daycare grandpa for four of his six grandchildren, spanning a fun-filled decade and a half. When he was not taking care of his grandchildren, Johnny enjoyed watching TV (People's Court, Password Plus, Twenty-five Thousand Dollar Pyramid, Larry King Live, 60 Minutes, Bonanza, Three's Company, The Andy Griffith Show, the Dick Van Dyke Show, Hawaii Five-0) and sports (NBA, WWE), reading (biographies, Chinese history journal), listening to music (Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra), and corresponding with his brother and old friends. Johnny had a strong passion for politics, both American and Chinese. He was a fan of John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton. He was also an admirer of Henry Kissinger and James Baker. In his younger years, Johnny loved good cognac (Courvoisier, Remy Martin, Hennessy), blended scotch (Johnny Walker Black, but of course!), and Budweiser. Back in Taiwan, he had a passion for American cars. He owned and sold several American cars (Chevrolet Corvair, Dodge Challenger, Pontiac Grand Prix, Buick Grand Sport, Mercury Cougar). As a kid in China, Johnny learned to play the harmonica. His favorite athletes of all time were Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Antonio Inoki and Muhammad Ali (needless to say, he was nearly in heaven in June 1976 when an unlikely match took place between the last two in Tokyo). His favorite actors were Marlon Brando, Audrey Hepburn, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Debra Kerr, Richard Widmark, Steve McQueen, Julie Andrews, Yul Brynner, Robert Wagner, Elizabeth Taylor, and Natalie Wood (who reminded him of his wife). He had visited London, Rome, Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Osaka, Singapore, Hong Kong, Montreal, Vancouver, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Honolulu, Kauai; not bad for an orphan boy from a small village in rural China! In 1997, Johnny returned to his hometown in China for the first time since he left in 1946 as a teenager. He visited the small rural village where he was born. Short of a marching band, villagers came out en masse to welcome him as the most successful native son. Johnny visited an older brother and the loving aunt who raised him. He also spent time with his niece, cousins, and other distant relatives. It was a heartwarming trip. Despite this triumphant homecoming, upon returning to the States, Johnny declared that, although a part of him will always be in Anhui, his home was here in America. Throughout his life, whether he was rich or poor at the time, Johnny was a true philanthropist. Having tasted the bitterness of being an orphan, Johnny had one huge soft spot for children. He routinely visited orphanages and donated both money and clothes. Johnny was exceptionally generous financially with family and friends, always ready to lend a helping hand. Johnny was well-known among family and friends for being unapologetically opinionated; a character trait clearly passed onto his four kids, to the angst and the delight of their friends and colleagues. In his lifetime, Johnny moved half way around the world, calling many places home, in search of better opportunity and life for himself and his family. Despite all that traveling, deep in his heart, home was always where his family was. Johnny lived a marvelous life, one that would literally make a great script for a spectacular Hollywood movie! He will be missed but most definitely not forgotten by those who had the pleasure of knowing him.