William T. Liu

William T. Liu, PhD. A memorial service for Professor Emeritus William T. Liu took place November 8th, 2008 at Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church in La Jolla. Inurnment followed at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego, California. He passed away on October 10th, 2008. He was 78. Professor Liu was a distinguished scholar both in Asia and in the United States. He published 12 books and 130 papers; received many awards, and was Director of the Pacific/Asian American Mental Health Research Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago before it was moved to the West Coast. He was the first Asian American to ever be appointed to the Chicago Board of Education and the only Board Member re-appointed following the Illinois Education Reform Legislation. After his early retirement from Chicago, he went overseas to strengthen the sociology departments of at least three major universities in Hong Kong and was a Consultant to the East Asia Institute of the National University of Singapore. There, he published his last two books. One is The Chinese Catholic Church in Conflict: 1949-2001, which provided detailed historical accounts of how the Chinese Catholic Church survived under communism. The other is Who Cares for the Elderly? -- which won an Outstanding Book Award. Professor Liu was born in China; came to the U.S. at age 17 and had to work on many jobs, including harvesting crops, canning peas, serving as doorman at resort hotels, and working as a waiter, before becoming an Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame. Everyone who has had the privilege of working with him loved his warmth, optimism and wonderful sense of humor. Besides his wife, Elena, his survivors include a son, Edwin (Rosa), two daughters,

Adeline (Rick) and Beatrice (Randy) and five grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests that a check written to the University of Notre Dame for William T. Liu Memorial Fund. Mailing Address: The Development Department, University of Notre Dame, c/o Carol Hennion, 1100 Grace Hall, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556.