YU-NAN CHANG

Chang, Yu-Nan, passed away peacefully on November 16, 2012, two weeks shy of his 92nd birthday. He was born on December 1, 1920, Lunar Year of the Monkey, to Zhang Yun Wu and Yang Pei-yi in Chengdu, China. After graduating in the 13th Class of Whampoa Military Academy in 1937, he represented the Chinese Army in a tour of military bases in the U.S. in 1941, trained with the U.S. First Armored Division in Fort Knox and Fort Benning, and achieved the rank of Lt. Colonel. At the end of WWII he served with the Chinese Mission in Tokyo, Japan, where he married his wife Jean Lew of Seattle, Washington on February 7, 1948. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1950 he attended the University of Washington where he received his doctorate in political science.

YN was a man of many accomplishments -- soldier, engineer, scholar, professor at Cal State University Fullerton, Chapman University, and Pepperdine University, author, entrepreneur, and the founder of Business Strategy Institute, a consulting firm in Orange County. Always the life of the party, he invariably had a story to tell, a song to sing, and more often than not, a tennis racket in his hand in search of a partner at Ridgeline Tennis Club. His love of tennis was surpassed only by his love and devotion to family. In his last days he was comforted by listening to his favorite song, Over The Rainbow, sung to him by his grandson, Adrian.

YN is survived by his loving wife, Jean; sons, Gary and Andrew and daughter Audrey and their families; and five grandchildren. Additionally he is survived by his brothers, Chang Chitang and Zhang Zhiguo and their families, and numerous nieces and nephews.