Edward Shing Ke Chian

Edward Shing Ke Chian was born in Shanghai, China on May 24, 1935. He lived an extraordinary life, having grown up in the glamorous and international district of Shanghai with each child having their own nanny and milk mother, mothers who dressed stylishly and smoked opium while playing Mahjong, and fathers who had more than one wife (as in the “The Joy Luck Club,” by Amy Tan).

His father was a railroad executive and he spent his early boyhood years exploring China via train and learning multiple dialects of Chinese along the way. These idyllic years would be followed by a decade of war, culminating with his family fleeing to Taiwan in 1949 with little more than the clothes on their back. After Edward graduated from Taipei Institute of Technology in 1955, he trained for a year at the Republic of China Military Academy. The ease of learning languages he had gained as a child proved to be invaluable when he won a full scholarship in 1957 to pursue a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State University (O.S.U.).

At that time, O.S.U. had seven Chinese students, and there he met fellow trailblazer, Lucia Teng Yung Chien. They married on June 3, 1961 and were married for exactly 61 years and one day until her passing in 2022. As the first person in their respective families to emigrate, together Edward and Lucia sponsored at least 10 family members and supported many more international students with employment and a family home to live in while becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Life together led them to Oklahoma, Michigan, and Massachusetts, where he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) in 1967 with a Doctorate of Science in Biochemical Engineering. In addition to school and a day job, Edward and Lucia also worked for his cousin, Joyce Chen, a famous restaurateur and television cooking show host.

After graduation, he and his young family moved to New Jersey, where he worked at Kimberly-Clark in the pulp and paper division, and to Illinois, marking a career change to academia and joining the Civil Engineering faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In 1978, he and his family moved to Atlanta where he became a tenured professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He thrived as an undergraduate professor of Civil Engineering and a graduate professor of Environmental Engineering, teaching hazardous wastewater remediation. During his tenure, he mentored dozens of Ph.D. students, guiding them through coursework, research, and to successfully earn their doctorate degrees.

Edward also served as a subject matter expert with the Environmental Protection Agency, advising best practices in global clean water. Through this work, he traveled throughout Africa, Australia, Europe, and Asia. He was an early developer of the reverse osmosis drinking water membrane, and by 1982, his family was drinking reverse osmosis water with a membrane that he created himself. He retired from Georgia Tech in 2000 and then taught one final sabbatical year at Robert Black College in Hong Kong.

Summers and weekends were spent with his family of four daughters and he could often be found at Lake Lanier, teaching his daughters, nieces, and nephews how to water ski, slalom, and hydroslide. Following these memorable days, Edward and Lucia would then barbecue a Chinese feast. In addition, they co-founded the Atlanta Tai Chi Club in the 1980s which still meets to this day. He was instrumental in the construction of Atlanta Chinatown and was also active in the Southeastern Chinese Scholars Association, serving a term as president.

Hailing from a family of gourmet chefs and having taught Lucia how to cook when they got married, Edward happily assumed all cooking duties upon retirement. His four daughters, three son-in-laws, and nine grandchildren, aged 11 to 23, have all been the grateful beneficiaries of “Waigong” (maternal grandfather in Chinese) cooking and will especially miss his “bai yi jie” (tofu knots). His family will also miss stories of his childhood, immigration journey, time at M.I.T., and decades teaching at Georgia Tech. In addition, they will miss his lively discussions about the latest drinking water and health trends, conversations about the next hot stock pick, and playing Mahjong with him. The entire family is grateful and humbled by the generous “hong baos” or red envelopes that were filled with money for gifts, Chinese New Year, and school expenses.

While his family is heartbroken by his passing, it fills them with great comfort and joy that what proved to be his final days were happy ones, having just seen grandchildren who were home from college and winning his final round of Mahjong.

In heaven, he joins his beloved wife, Lucia Chian; his eldest daughter, Sarah Renee Chian; his infant daughter, Victoria Jenice Chian; his parents, Tsong Yuan Chian and Shi Mei Liao; and his seven older brothers and sisters, including his closest sister, Chung Ke Peh.

Edward is survived by his three loving daughters: Nancy Chian Gresham (Hal), Elta Chian Ratliff (Warren), and Jeanette Chian Brooks (Dan) and his nine adoring grandchildren: Hayden, Nicole, Natalie, Owen, Garrett, Andrew, Evan, Conor, and Alana. He is also survived by many nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews in the United States, Canada, and China.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital in memory of Edward Chian. The Chian family would like to express our deepest gratitude to the caregiving team at Sista’s Compassionate Care, who cared for him as if he were their own parent, Lucia’s Mahjong Club at Somerby Sandy Springs, and to the village at Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital, who ensured that his final days were comfortable.

A celebration of Edward’s life will be held on Saturday, March 30th at 2:00 p.m. at Dunwoody United Methodist Church, 1548 Mount Vernon Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30338.