My father-in-law was very influential among his many relatives and friends. His recent passed away caused a lot of reaction and discussion among many of his social circle. The first time I met him was in 1970. It was the time of my wedding day with Christine. He was then 49, a rather young businessman with ambition. He held a celebrated wedding reception in down town Dallas, Statler Hilton. I remember I was working on my doctorate dissertation and many of my advisers attended the dinner. He ordered some rather sumptuous thick steaks and wines for the party. We all had a very memorable gathering at the time. We then rented an Impala Duster, drove from Dallas to Disneyland in LA. I remember the interstate highway 10 is straight and wide. In some section of the highway, I drove at 110 miles per hour speed. Imagine at that time, there was no seat-belt law. He was very nervous about my driving style. But it was too late as he already wrote a bill of sale as he always said that he handed me Christine in the wedding chapel.
My father-in-law was a man of high energy type. He walked faster than most people of his age. I still remember the episode at Oakland in 1980's. He liked to walk around Lake Merritt. On that sunny afternoon, he walked way ahead of me and left me in the dust. It was a humiliating experience for me. His early career was quite successful in the steel business by dismantling or scrapping some good old ships, commercial or military. Before 趙耀東 took over 中鋼公司, my father-in-law ran the show for several years. He was very proud of what he had done in 高雄 at that time. In the reunion of the 50th Anniversary of our NTUEE64, we had a trip around the island. When we arrived 高雄 and had a harbor cruise tour. Christine was so moved and nostalgic when she saw the new and improved harbor and those shipyards used to dismantle scrapped ships. She was in tear and said it should have been a great experience if her dad gets another chance to see this harbor and do the job once more.
Once in 1970, my father-in-law bid the Queen Elizabeth II (good old British pride, Britannia Rules) in Florida with Tong How Yuen (董浩雲), a shipping tycoon and magnate. That was a big news at that time. Tong later talked him out of the deal as Tong wanted to build a University-On-The-Sea (海上大學). His argument was that building a university is much more meaningful than creating a pile of steel scrap. Profit or not, we should create something valuable for the History. Tong won the bid and towed the good old Queen Elizabeth II to Hongkong. Unfortunately, the ship caught fire while moored in Hongkong. Rumor said the communist was the culprit as Tong wanted the ship flying the flag of the Republic of China, not People Republic of China. This shows the difference of only one word can change the course of the world history.
