Vicky Ray-Shen was born in Wuhan, Hubei province in China, the second child of the Hu family in the year 1946 when the Sino-Japanese War just ended. Wuhan is the hometown of her parents, Chia-liang & Chi Yeh Hu. When she was about two to three years of age, her mother took both her and her elder sister, Shiao-yuen, to Taiwan to visit their father who was working at that time in Taiwan. While visiting, mainland China was taken over by the Communist party and the borders were closed. She was thereby brought up and educated in Taiwan. Her mother passed away when Vicky was 14 years old. She and Shiao-yuen then took over the responsibilities of taking care of the two younger sisters, Ying-ying and Yi-chin. She had been a very loving sister all her life.
In 1961, she passed the entrance examination and was admitted to the First Girls’ High School, the most renowned high school in Taiwan. During high school, she was not only good academically, but also athletically. After three years of hard study, she passed yet another entrance examination in 1964 to the Department of Civil Engineering at National Cheng-kung University, which was one of the best universities in Taiwan. Not many women were able to major in engineering at that time--there were only two girls in the program. Her nickname in the department was "the precious treasure".
After graduation, she went abroad for further study after one year of working experience at a construction site, including wearing helmet for work inspection, etc. It must have been an unusually beautiful scene when she was walking around in the construction site! Vicky completed her Master of Science in Environmental Health Engineering degree at the University of Texas at Austin in 1971, where she met her husband, Singsun Huang. They were married in 1971 in the same ceremony as two other couples, all of whom were close friends. After the wedding, they moved to Buffalo, New York, where Singsun was working on his Ph.D. degree.
She started her career working for Union Carbide as staff engineer, to control and mitigate the water pollution from the chemical plants. She worked on the position until Singsun received his doctoral degree in 1978. Singsun and Vicky later settled down in Wichita, Kansas. He worked for the Boeing Company and she worked for the city planning office. She was a registered professional engineer in the City of Wichita. The happiest moment was when they welcomed their son, David, in 1986.
Both Singsun and Vicky enjoyed ballroom dancing as their hobby. They danced together more than 15 years! In 2008, 3 years after Singsun passed away, Vicky and David moved to Seattle and continued the family dancing tradition.
Vicky was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. She fought bravely against the disease for nearly 3 years. She was courageous and had always tried to look at the bright side along the process. Her courage inspired the family members deeply. She had appreciated her good life, in which she had no regrets. She completed her life gracefully on May 28, 2015, three weeks shy of her 69th birthday. Her love for her family will remain in their hearts.
So dance on, for life is full of joy, radiance and grace! Dance on!
Vicky is survived by her son David, brother Yitai, sisters Ying-ying, Yi-chin and Yi-fang, nieces Anne, Eve, Connie and Clara, nephews Jim, Patrick, Philip and Luis.
All are welcome to sign the online guestbook below and add any messages or stories for the Huang family.
If you would like to send a card to the Huang family, please send it care of: Acacia Funeral Home, 14951 Bothell Way NE, Seattle, WA 98155.
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