Alice Li Liu

(11/04/1957 - 09/27/2012)

After the fight against the lung cancer in the past eleven months, Alice Li Liu passed away peacefully on September 27, 2012 at a local assisted living facility in Fremont, California, USA. Li’s final weeks were mostly spent at her lovely home surrounded by her family, friends and health care professionals.

Alice Li Liu was born on November 4, 1957 in Guangzhou, China. When she was around five, Li moved to Guilin together with her family due to her parents’ job relocation to Guangxi Province. Li spent most of her youth in Guilin, one of the world’s most beautiful scenic places she fondly called hometown. During her ten-year schooling in Guilin, Li was honored in the city-wide “Learn from Liu Li” campaign for her excellence in character, academic and sports. Li was not only an outstanding student; she also sincerely performed many good deeds, volunteered and helped others at very young age. As the city’s best Student Role Model in late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Li had inspired many people. Her upbeat spirit had influenced a generation. After high school, Li went to work in the countryside as a young intellectual for about two years, just like many other educated young people in that era. She then worked briefly as an apprentice in a machinery factory before she successfully passed the first national college entrance exam in 1977 and sought for higher education in the top engineering university in southern China.

Li attended South China University of Technology (SCUT) in Guangzhou between 1977-1982 and 1983-1986; where she earned both her bachelor and master degrees in electrical engineering. Throughout her life, Li had demonstrated again and again that she could accomplish anything she set her mind to do. After she obtained her bachelor degree, for example, Li was determined to enter the master degree program at SCUT. She first fought hard to find a job in Guangzhou so that she could gain access to the nearby university’s recourses. Then Li put endless hours and tremendous effort into her study during nights and weekends while worked as a full-time system automation engineer. Li married in 1985 in Guangzhou. However, Li’s continuous pursuing of her dreams didn’t stop her from rigorous study in TOTEL even when she was in her five months of pregnancy of her first child.

In August 1989, Li came to United States by herself with only a briefcase of basic clothes and some money for initial tuitions. Despite of hardships, Li earned her doctoral degree in electrical engineering from the Colorado State University (CSU) within four years with her amazing endurance and remarkable intellectual capability. Upon her PhD graduation in 1993, and her subsequent post-doctoral research at the radar lab in CSU, Li returned to Guangzhou in early 1995 and taught at SCUT for eight months. In the summer of 1995, Li was invited back to CSU as a visiting scholar. From end of 1995 to 2003, Li was employed as senior member of technical staff by several high-tech companies in Silicon Valley included C-Cube Microsystems/LSI and Chips & Technologies/Intel. She had settled down and lived cheerfully with her family in the desirable Bay Area ever since.

After the collapse of dot-com bubble, Li fearlessly changed her career in her midlife and quickly transitioned herself into a successful real estate agent since 2003. With her warm-heart, dedication and business acumen, Li selflessly shared her knowledge and had enthusiastically helped many people found their affordable homes to live comfortably in the expensive Bay Area. Even after she was diagnosed as stage IV lung cancer last October, Li still provided her professional services and responsibly completed transactions for her clients. Her unbelievable strength, her upbeat attitude and her positive corporation in medical treatments had gained her great respect from those who fortunately accompanied her throughout her brave fight in the difficult battle against the deadly disease.

Li enjoyed gardening, sightseeing, as well as spending time with family and friends. She devoted much of her spare time and energy in taking care of a variety of flowers, fruit trees and vegetables in her backyard garden, which is truly a masterpiece of homegrown garden as admirably praised by many visitors. Her capacity for love, her passion for life, and her self-sacrifice and hard working had touched not only her family but also many other people who became to know her at different stages of her life.

Li is survived by her husband, Shiping Wang; her two daughters, Jean Wang and Jaime Wang; her parents W. Liu and Y. Liu; her brother, L. Liu; and her sister, H. Liu.

Memorial service for Alice Li Liu has been arranged between 2:30-5:00 pm on October 9 at Cedar Lawn Memorial Park in Fremont, California, USA.

We are grateful to those who cared Li during her final days and thank friends who expressed their heart-felt condolences for the loss of our beloved Li. Alice Li Liu lives forever in our hearts and thoughts!