Augustin Tsu-Rong Chen

Augustin Tsu-Jung Chen, 79, of Lincoln, Rhode Island passed away peacefully in his sleep on January 4, 2024, surrounded by his loved ones. Augie, as he was known to his friends, was born in Beijing, China as the second son of a general in Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist Army. When the Nationalist government fell in 1949, he and his family fled first to Hong Kong and then Taiwan, where they first settled in Taitung in the eastern part of the island. Augie would later recall an idyllic childhood, filled with days of swimming in the local springs and climbing the town’s banyan trees. A clever child, he excelled in school, mastering classical Chinese and inheriting his father’s gift for calligraphy. He was also mischievous, earning the nickname, Piqiu, which means “leather ball” though the first character is a homonym for “mischievous.”

While he was a gifted artist, he pursued chemistry as an undergraduate in Tamkang University in Taipei. Augie was not only formidably intelligent and curious about the world, he was also courageous, steadfast, and determined, putting himself through university and later through graduate school, first at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and later at the University of Iowa, where he earned a Ph.D. in chemistry. He married his beloved wife, Wendy, in 1966—the same year he immigrated to the United States, where Wendy joined him three years later. After earning his doctorate, he began a distinguished career at Upjohn, Dow Chemicals, Olin, and Solutia. While he embraced the managerial and mentoring roles he took on later in his career, at heart he remained a research scientist, earning numerous patents. They settled in Cheshire, Connecticut, where they raised their family and lived happily for four decades.

Augie was a devoted and loving husband, father, grandfather, and brother, a loyal friend, a passionate amateur photographer, and an enthusiastic world traveler. He had an extensive knowledge of Chinese history, culture, and art, and was a principal and teacher at the Chinese Language School of Greater Hartford. He could recite Song and Tang dynasty poems decades after he learned them as a child, mastered the Chinese comic tradition of xiangsheng, and was once, much to his delight, mistaken for a professor of Chinese art when someone overheard him explaining a work of calligraphy to his children at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A gifted linguist, he spoke English, Mandarin, and Taiwanese fluently, and also could converse in Cantonese, Hainanese, Hakka, and Japanese.

And though he often traveled back to Taiwan and China, he also loved his adopted country. He loved the music of the Platters, Four Tops, and Linda Rondstadt. He admired Carl Sagan and David Attenborough, and his favorite character on The Muppet Show was the Swedish chef. He also loved spy novels and bought mass-market paperbacks by the bagful from the local library. He was a connoisseur of tea but also a voracious and adventurous eater who relished Maine lobsters, hot pot, and ice cream of all flavors. He made the best scallion pancakes and could eat noodles for every meal. He loved the outdoors, and took his family camping throughout the East Coast; later in life, he traveled to various national parks, delighting in toting his camera with him and taking pictures of the local birds. A former marksman during his time with the Taiwanese army, he was also interested in military history and enjoyed attending airshows.

He is much missed by his family—Wendy, his son, William of Providence, Rhode Island, his daughter, Jennifer, her husband, Simon Montlake, and his grandson, Sylvester Bo-Ru Montlake of Cambridge, Massachusetts, his sister Sylvia Jow of Potomac, Maryland, and his brother Nicholas Chen of Bethesda, Maryland. He is also survived by his sisters Chen Xiaoyan of Kunming, China and Chen Huaiwen of Hainan Island, China, and he is predeceased by his older brother, Chen Zhu-De, or John, of Taipei, Taiwan and grandson, Tobias Hong-Ru Montlake.

The family is deeply grateful for the thoughtful and attentive care that he received from the extraordinary medical teams at the Lifespan Cancer Institute, Rhode Island Hospital, and HopeHealth Hulitar Hospice Center. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that the donations be made to The National Park Foundation: https://give.nationalparks.org/.