Ding San Kuo

Ding San Kuo, 郭定三, Dennis Kuo, was born in the summer of 1931, on Lushan mountain in JiangXi, China. On that day, in the resort of beauty poured from heaven [1] his father Kuo Si Yan (郭思演), a two-star general, was in training at the Kuomintang Nationalist Army summer retreat. Kuo Si Yan, from the Hakka village Xiao Liu (小留) in Dapu (大埔), is a descendant of the famed Tang Dynasty General and Prime Minister Kuo Zi Yi（郭子儀). His mother Chen Shuang Hui（陳雙慧), daughter of a wealthy Hakka banking family from nearby town of San He Ba (三河壩) in Dapu (大埔) welcomed their long awaited third son in the cool misty mountain air.

Young Ding San Kuo excelled in academics and as the military family moved from one front to another resisting Japanese occupation and Communist revolution, Ding San attended YānZào Elementary (煙藻小學) in the town of Dama (大麻) near their ancestral hometown of Xiao Liu, later elementary at Pei Zhen (培正小學) private school in Guang Zhou, the prestigious Yale University Middle School (雅禮中學) in Chang Sha (長沙) Hunan (1944-46), the top-ranked Shi Da Fu Zhong High School (師大附中十九班19th class) affiliated with Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, and the College of Agriculture (農學院) in TaiChung (台中).

After graduating from the Republic of China Naval Academy (海軍官校) in Zuoying, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, Ding San emigrated to Germany, to join his two younger brothers in Europe. He studied German at Rhein. Friedr. Wilh. Univ. (1962-63), worked at the Bayer Aspirin Company in Leverkusen, lived in Cologne, and befriended a local German girl, a sixteen year-old blonde, who would soon become his sister-in-law.

After two years in Germany, Ding San joined his brothers in the United States. In 1963, trained by Caroline Meng (孟憲粵), the older sister of another future sister-in-law, Ding San waited tables at the storied Yen King Palace Restaurant in Washington DC. There he fell in love with the hostess/cashier, a pretty young woman studying English in DC, who would soon become his wife.

With the skills gained in DC, Ding San then stepped up to the San Francisco Trader Vic’s, a well-known upscale Polynesian Tiki restaurant, where he served large groups of convention attendees. He then moved to Texas to study economics at the University of Houston. He married Ruth Ku (顧賓秋) at the House of Lee, the foundational Chinese-American restaurant in Metairie, Louisiana, in 1965. Caroline Meng served as maid-of-honor [2]. To support the family and pay college tuition, Ding San worked at the Trader Vic’s in downtown Houston.

Always a kind gentleman and dedicated hard-working family man, Ding San raised two highly accomplished sons while cooking dinner every night at the Stafford family home on Meadow Trail Lane and operating Chinese restaurants including the elegant China Palace in Houston in the 1970s (where the JW Marriott Houston by the Galleria now stands) and family-friendly Hunan Star on Bay Area Boulevard in Clear Lake in the 1980s and 1990s. As a good Hakkanese should, he worked hard and lived frugally (刻苦耐勞) as his mother taught him and often worked while the family took skiing vacations.

In the 2000s, Ding San retired in Clear Lake, Texas with his second wife Emily Ming Ming Wang (王明明). He enjoyed cooking, gardening, grandchildren, watching Chinese language news, stock investing, collecting geode crystals, socializing and playing mah jong weekly with his brothers and Taiwan agricultural college classmate Steve Wong (王樹森), and sharing detailed knowledge of Kuo family history with his niece.

Despite deteriorating vision in later years, with aid from Emily, his power of memory, spatial and social intellect, and the characteristic Kuo brothers positive spirit and laugh, Ding San Kuo, remarkably, still shopped the aisles at Kroger, cooked dinner every night, maintained the household, walked for one hour indoors every night for fitness, and knitted together the large social fabric of an extended Chinese from Taiwan network using a thumb-sized paper address book and a land-line push button phone.

As a young boy, Ding San Kuo walked for miles to buy opium to relieve his mother’s pain caused by a chronic lung illness. As her condition worsened, Ding San assumed the household duties and provided for his ten brothers and sisters. Through his long life, overcoming hardships with grace, Ding San Kuo continued to work hard, speak softly and kindly to others, and tell riveting stories with a smile.

After ninety-four years of faithfulness, Ding San Kuo, our beloved and kind SanBebe (三伯伯), may you rest in well-deserved peace, and may you continue to guide us by the example of your hard work and gentleness.

Ding San Kuo is husband to Emily Min Min Wang (王明明) and former husband to Ruth Bing-Chu Ku (顧賓秋), father of Dr. William Kuo (郭慶生）and Dr. Edward Kuo (郭龍生), father-in-law to Diana Casas and Luz-Elena Encinas-Kuo, Phuong Du Kuo, grandfather to Bianca Kuo Stubbe, William Andrew Kuo, Nicholas Ian Kuo, Sebastian Kuo, Justin Kuo, great-grandfather to Nicole Kuo Stubbe and Violet Kuo Stubbe (Michigan), step-son to Ms. Zhang Xiu Ying (郭詹秀英) originally from Miaoli Taiwan, brother-in-law to Ms. Kuo He HanQinging (何瀚青) (Taipei), Christine Kuo (Sugar Land), brother to Ding Yi Kuo (郭定一) of Miaoli, Charles Ding Wu Kuo (郭定五), Ding Liu Kuo (郭定六), Richard Ding Chi Kuo (郭定七), Steve Ding Ba Kuo (郭定八), Rosa Li Hwa Kuo (郭麗華), Grace Hou Hwa Kuo (郭后華), Jenny Tsuy Hwa Kuo (郭翠華), Ren Jie Kuo (郭仁傑), and Shun Hwa Kuo (郭舜華), and beloved SanBebe (三伯伯）to twenty five nieces and nephews, grand-uncle (三伯公）to forty, and great-grand uncle (三太伯公) to eleven: Hugo Kuo Matthews (郭維世), Esmeralda Kuo Matthews (郭玫世) (England), Julian Kuo Sui (隋嗣頎), Kyle Kuo Sui (隋嗣楷) Lucas Kuo Shiau 蕭, Mina Kuo Shiau 蕭 (California), Yun-Chih Kuo Lee (李昀知) (Hsinchu), Nina Kuo Burgos (鄭庭琍), Liliana Kuo Burgos (鄭庭琳), Edmund Kuo Wang (王浩丞) (Taipei) and Nathaniel Kuo Meng Gu (谷慶安) (Michigan).

SanBebe, we love you, we miss you, we remember you, we respect you, we honor you.

May God bless you and keep you, until we meet you there.

Dr. Angela Kuo Wang (郭中慧, Niece 侄女)

Houston, Texas

August 2, 2025