Paula Poy Fung

Paula Fung was the fourth and youngest child of Donald and Ming Poy, a Post Office worker and Chinese school teacher, respectively. She was raised in the Chinatown neighborhood of Chicago, which helped foster an appreciation for Chinese culture that carried through her life.

Paula was a product of the Chicago Public Schools system, from elementary school where she skipped a grade to Nicholas Senn High School, where she proudly sat as first chair viola. She went on to study biochemistry at the University of Illinois in Urbana, which included a summer internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, which she remembered fondly. Eventually, she went back to school to earn an MBA at the University of Chicago, attending classes while raising two children, Robert and Jennifer, and working full time.

Her knowledge and foundation in biochemistry led to a lifelong professional career in healthcare, first as a laboratory supervisor and Quality Assurance manager for a pharmaceutical company and later as an IT project manager for hospitals and consulting companies. Her interests in science and Chinese culture merged when she was selected as a member of the Citizen Ambassador Program of People to People International. She represented the American Association for Clinical Chemistry in a two-week visit to the People's Republic of China, where she visited hospitals, spoke with doctors and scientists, and wrote a report on their advances.

Although she had career aspirations, she also valued family and once Jennifer was born, she dedicated two years to raising her children. Even after Paula returned to work, she still found time to make things special from baking cupcakes in ice cream cones for class birthday celebrations to sewing Halloween costumes and even graduation dresses. As a family, they spent summers camping, going on cross-country road trips, and on biannual trips to visit Reggie's family in Hawaii. These vacations instilled a love of travel in Robert and Jennifer, with Paula even treating Jennifer to a twenty-first birthday trip to London, a place where Paula had fond memories of studying abroad. A few years later, Paula organized a family heritage trip to China to meet extended family and see the villages where her parents were born.

She also continued to grow her own appreciation for Chinese culture through food. She learned Chinese recipes from family members or books, and improved upon them to make them her own. She also sought to share Chinese culture with others in the same way, such as bringing almond cookies and almond jello to Jennifer's first grade class to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Paula and Reggie also brought their children to Chinatown each week to visit her parents and attend Chinese Christian Union Church, where she was baptized in 1981. As a member of the church, she served as nursery and Sunday school teacher. She also belonged to the Koinonia Fellowship, a group for young parents with children, and created an interest group centered on stewarding finances well through investing. She also instilled these financial lessons in her children, because every week she gave them some money to put in the offering tray at church, which taught them that money ultimately comes from and belongs to God.

In addition to serving at church, she also volunteered in a professional capacity as part of the University of Chicago's Gleacher Center Business Alumni Roundtable, as the Programming and Volunteer Chair for the Alumni Association Board, and as the Chicago Director of Education for the Project Management Institute.

After retiring in 2017, she moved to California to help raise Shane, her first grandchild. While in Los Angeles, she volunteered at the Getty Villa and at the USC Pacific Asia Museum in Los Angeles, where she continued to support Asian history and culture.

She is survived by her two children, Robert (Catherine) and Jennifer, and her two grandchildren, Shane and Kaylee.

In lieu of flowers, it was Paula's wish to continue to support Chinese culture and the immigrant community through contributions to Jung Wah, as well as the two churches which supported her spiritual growth in her last years - Chinese Christian Fellowship Church, 3636 Illinois Road, Wilmette, Illinois 60091, and San Jose Christian Alliance Church, 2360 McLaughlin Avenue, San Jose, California 95122).