Wayne Wing Chow

This was his faithful mantra - he lived by it and raised all five of his children to embrace the same ethos.

Like us all, Wayne Chow was formed and informed by his life experiences. Bullied and discriminated against in his youth, he silently vowed that his children would not experience the same. For his sons: Friday night Judo lessons taught them self-defence. For both his sons and daughters: Sunday morning swim lessons were insisted upon, because “…if you’re drowning God won’t save you”, and though fiercely proud of his Chinese roots and heritage, English only was spoken in the home because “…if you speak English, then you should be fine”.

Born and raised in small town Cumberland on Vancouver Island, Wayne (Way) Wing Chow was raised in a large close-knit Chinese family of nine children. His family, prosperous for the times, owned the Chow Lee General store in this coal mining town. As fate would have it, his father chose a particularly inopportune time to start a logging operation during the Depression. It quickly failed and left his family near-penniless.

At a time when few Chinese were university educated, Wayne was an exception. Through the generosity of his sister Mamie and her husband Guy, Wayne left the West Coast and found himself in Dauphin, Manitoba. He finished high school, went to university and worked at their restaurant, The Grange Café, serving Chinese-Canadian food during his spare time. He had dreams of being a doctor, but facing discriminatory quotas he settled instead for being an Electrical Engineer. He graduated in 1950 from the University of Manitoba, was the first Chinese engineer hired by Saskatchewan Power, and went on to lead a fulfilling career at BC Hydro in Victoria, BC.

It was through another Chinese classmate, that Wayne met the love of his life. As a small-town prairie girl from Elm Creek, Manitoba, when it came time, Yvonne Wong gave him an ultimatum: leave the restaurant or there will be no marriage. His older brother Park took over the business, Wayne and Yvonne married, made their life on Victoria BC and went on to live a full life together of 72 years.

Mid-life, Wayne felt a calling and kinship to a country he had never visited until he was almost 50, and when he finally made that fateful trip to China in 1973, it left him with an indelible and powerful impression, so much so, that he went on to make many trips to China over the next 40 years, connecting with his roots, exploring its vast geography, travelling the Silk Road route and learning about its diverse culture and history.

As father to five children, and like many of his generation raised during the Great Depression, he was a frugal man, almost always paid cash, and never let an opportunity pass without enthusiastically extolling the value of hard work, education and the importance of family.

A practical man, an atheist, an optimist with a ready smile, Wayne rarely saw life in shades of grey. He was quick and proud to claim he lived in “God’s Country”, where he faithfully tended his bountiful vegetable garden. He was often absolute in his perspective which could make for frustrating and exasperating dinner table conversation. And whenever he couldn’t explain himself or his reasons, he would simply smile and say, “I did my best”. And for that we are eternally grateful.

Wayne was predeceased by his loving wife, Yvonne (2023) and father to Gaylene (Keith), Larry (Lai Ping), Doug (Tong), Marla (John) and Warren (Hong Ying) and loving Gong Gong/Yeh Yeh to 11 grandchildren – Michael (Marta), Sves aka Stephanie, Christopher, Alicia, Vanessa, Andrew (Jessie), Patrick, Dominic (Elaine), Chloé, Christine and Sarah.

A private family graveside service will be held at 11am on Thursday, September 18, 2025 at Royal Oak Burial Park, 4673 Falaise Dr., Victoria, BC. Flowers gratefully declined. Fiercely proud of his humble beginnings in the village of Cumberland, BC please consider making a donation in Wayne’s memory to the Cumberland Museum & Archives (cumberlandmuseum.ca) which is committed to documenting Cumberland’s history as being home to one of the earliest Chinese communities in Canada.