PATRICIA TSIEN

TSIEN--Patricia Koo, passed away on April 25, 2015, at the age of 97, in Montgomery Village, Maryland. She was born on October 17, 1917, in Washington DC, daughter of May Tang Koo and V.K. Wellington Koo, the prominent Chinese diplomat. After receiving the B.Sc. degree in physics at London University, she joined the United Nations in 1947. She devoted herself to the work of decolonization, and was a senior official in the Department for Political Affairs, Trusteeship and Decolonization. Mrs. Tsien was the founding president of the Ad Hoc Group on Equal Rights for Women in the U. N. Secretariat. After retirement in 1979, she was a long time member of the Association of Former International Civil Servants, serving as its president for three years. She was regarded by her colleagues as a model international civil servant. Her husband, Kiachi Tsien, and her son, Michael Tsien, predeceased her. She is survived by her step-mother, Juliana Young Koo; her daughter, Ying-Ying T. Yuan; her grandchildren, Nicole Yuan and Christopher Tsien; and two great-grandchildren. A celebration of her life will be held at the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City on May 9, 2015, at 10am. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Kiachi and Patricia Koo Tsien Fund, Columbia University Libraries, c/o Matthew Hampel, 507 Butler Library, 535 West 114th Street, New York, NY 10027.