Robert Lai

Dr. Robert Yih-Shyong Lai passed away peacefully on April 30, 2018. Born a proud son of Keelung, Taiwan on July 24, 1940, he went on to study Civil Engineering at National Taiwan University and fulfilled his military service as a frogman in Taiwan's Navy.

In 1965, he came to the United States to attend Graduate School at Northwestern University, earning a Masters in 1967 and a Ph.D in Fluid Dynamics in 1969. His daughter Shingmin was born there in 1967. He then was a Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of Buffalo where his son Eric was born.

In 1970, along with his wife Eunice, their young family moved to Milwaukee, WI where he began teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. One of his proudest moments was becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1975.

In 1980, he began a position at the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University. Two years later he moved over to TRW until he retired in 2000. During this time he also held several leadership positions in the Taiwanese-American community, including as President of the North American Taiwanese Professors Association (NATPA).

After he retired from TRW, he served as a board member of the National Applied Research Laboratories in Taiwan, later as Chairman of the Board, of the organization. He also hosted "Scientific Taiwan", a weekly TV series in Taiwan and was a chair professor at Tatung University until 2011. Subsequently, he was active in several Taiwan-centric organizations, serving as Chairman of the Board of the Global Taiwan Institute (GTI) and as President of the Taiwan American Senior Society (TASS).

One of Robert's standing beliefs was, "I've always believed that the future for Taiwan and the United States could be bright as long as Taiwan shared America's values. That is why I always supported the promotion of American values in Taiwan."

He is survived by his beloved wife of 51 years Eunice, his daughter Shingmin and son-in-law Douglas Skrypek and grandchildren Alexander and Vivienne Skrypek, and his son Eric and daughter-in-law Emily Lin. He is also survived by his brother and several extended relatives living abroad.

A remembrance service for immediate family was held at Grace Episcopal Church in Silver Spring, MD on May 4, 2018. Arrangements are pending for a memorial gathering of family and friends to be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to the Global Taiwan Institute (www.globaltaiwan.org) or the Taiwanese Youth Arts Foundation (www.tyafdc.org).