Esther Hsu Yuan

Esther was born on October 25, 1933, in Tainan, Taiwan. She was the fourth of five children in her family. She came to this country as part of a very selective educational program for Taiwanese students to attend college in America. She was always so proud that she was picked to be part of that program.

Esther graduated from Bloomfield College in New Jersey with a degree in math, and went to work as an assistant actuary at Great American Insurance Company in New York City. It was in New York where Esther met Mark, her husband. They were married more than 60 years when Mark passed away in 2024.

She and Mark together had two children, Robert and Jennifer. After their son was born, Esther quit her job to stay home. When their son and daughter were both in elementary school, Esther decided to get a real estate agent license and work part-time. She continued working successfully as a real estate agent for many years as the kids grew up and went off to college. She also tested for and got her real estate broker license.

Like most, if not every mother, Esther was devoted to her kids; they meant the world to her. But in 1988, she and Mark experienced the terrible loss of her son in a tragic accident. And although they never fully recovered from losing their only son, Esther and Mark found joy six years later, when their first grandson (named in honor of their son, Robert) was born.

Both Esther and Mark were immensely proud of their children and, later, their two grandsons. Their son and daughter both graduated from Stanford; their son was accepted to UC San Diego School of Medicine; their daughter graduated from Harvard Law School; and their grandsons graduated from UCLA, Michigan, and USC School of Law.

Those who knew Esther – and even those who only met her once – knew her as an outgoing, cheerful and thoughtful person who could talk to anyone about anything. She had a gift for making people so comfortable and at ease that before they knew it, they knew all about her life and she knew all about theirs. Any stranger that happened to sit next to her on an airplane – or stand next to her in a line – didn’t stay a stranger for long.

Esther also spoke several languages fluently. Growing up in Taiwan, she learned Taiwanese, then Japanese (during Japan’s occupation of Taiwan during WWII), then Mandarin (after WWII ended). When she came to America, of course, she learned English. This made conversation at the dinner table with Mark, who shared the same linguistic background, unintelligible to anyone who did not speak all four languages; they would move seamlessly from one language to another, often mid-sentence.

Esther meant so much to her family and to all who met her. She passed away very peacefully and, as the cliché goes, surrounded by her loved ones. We will treasure our memories of her. She will be missed.

She is survived by her daughter Jennifer, her son-in-law Michael, and her grandsons Robert and Steven.