The family of Chew and Yowly Hoi donated $10,000 in 2019 to the Gom Benn Scholarship Fund for a scholarship in their memory to be awarded annually to a top college student.
“My parents met while in school,” said Jerri Pih, their daughter. “Afterward, they became teachers. For many years, my dad served as the treasurer for the Scholarship Fund. Our family created this scholarship as a memorial to my parents and their love and appreciation for higher education.”
Wong Kin Cheung, later known as Chew Hoi, was born on June 15, 1929, in GomBenn Village. He loved running, jumping and playing basketball, table tennis, and track and field. He attended the National Sun Yat Sen University (later re-named as the South China Agricultural College) in Guangzhou, where he majored in Entomology: the study of bugs. While at school, he met Lau Shiu Yao (Yowly — born October 4, 1932 in Guangzhou). They were married in 1952, and would later have 3 children: Patrick in 1953, Michael in 1959 and Jerri in 1961.
After college, Chew taught mathematics and entomology. Yowly was also a teacher, teaching biology. The Communist government assigned them to teach in different cities. Later, with the help of a “mule,” they escaped to Hong Kong, where Chew continued to teach. With the help of Chew’s father, the family eventually moved to Southern California. Chew’s sister-in-law helped him to secure a position in data processing for Bank of America, where Chew would work continuously for 23 years. Meanwhile, Yowly worked cutting threads at a sewing factory. Later Yowly landed a data-entry job at Security Pacific National Bank, which later became Bank of America. She worked at the Bank for over 25 years until her retirement in 1997.
Along with other Gom Benn immigrants, Chew helped to establish the Gom Benn Village Association in Chinatown. Chew wrote the newsletter, and served for many years as treasurer of the Scholarship Fund.
Yowly died June 3, 2018. Chew died January 19, 2019. Yowly and Chew are survived by their children and their spouses, grandchildren and their spouses, plus 2 great-grandchildren and another on the way.