May-Blossom Chang Wilkinson

1922 - 2023

May-Blossom Chang Wilkinson was a beloved elementary school teacher who lived to celebrate the milestone of her 100th birthday. She broke ground as the first teacher of color in the Berkeley Unified School District when she began her career in 1949. Pioneering and culturally relevant before her time, she taught primary grades for 38-years. Over the years, she brought innovation to lower grade level mathematics with her standing-room only conference presentations on how to use Chinese paper folding as a manipulative in the instruction of geometry.

Blossom was born in Honolulu in 1922 and raised in Wahiawa, a small rural town on Oahu. She was the youngest of five with four older brothers, and was the first girl in her entire extended family to go to college. During WWII, she worked in army transport by day, and was a member of the Women's Army Volunteer Corps in the evening. She also wrote a weekly newspaper column about the activities of the Corps. After the war, she attended the College of the Pacific and took public school teaching classes as an afterthought.

In 1950 Blossom was accepted to the World Council of Churches' summer program for young people to help rebuild war-torn Europe, and was assigned to a youth hostel project in Germany. Blossom married Bob Wilkinson in 1951. When Bob, a social worker, got a job in Redding in the 1950s, Blossom taught in Shasta County and innovated as the host of a weekly TV educational program for young children.

In 1959, the family moved to San Mateo, where Blossom primarily taught first grade at Baywood Elementary until her "graduation from the classroom" in 1987. A quirky, adored teacher, Blossom amused shy children by giving them silly names and telling tall tales about living in a treehouse and riding a camel to school that always got lost and made her late.

Blossom was honored with many notable awards, including from the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, several state Assemblymembers, the League of Women Voters, Soroptomist International of the Americas, Delta Phi Upsilon, and the San Mateo Community College District Foundation. In 1985 Baywood School designated Blossom Poet Laureate because of her poetically written accolades of people who were honored each year by the PTA. She was a member and officer in several educational organizations, including the San Mateo Community College District Foundation and the San Mateo County Math Science Council, among others.

Always curious about people's life journeys, respectful of different cultures, and adventurous in spirit, Blossom loved bringing people together to share Chinese culture. For many years, she and her family celebrated Chinese New Year with four legendary parties held over two weekends.

In retirement, Blossom became an accomplished oil painter, depicting endangered species and giving each creature a name, whether stately or whimsical. In 2020, some of Blossom's stories were published in a book entitled Chinese Traditions: From Festivals to Funerals.

Blossom's family is most grateful to her caregiver, Latu Koloamatangi, for providing several years of loving care and friendship, which improved her quality of life.

Blossom is survived by her husband Bob, children Steve, Sunya, Su-Lin, and Willy, seven grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and extended family in Hawaii and California. 

A Celebration of Life will take place on Saturday, February 4, 2023 at 2 p.m. at Crosby-N. Gray & Co. Funeral Home, 2 Park Road, Burlingame and livestreamed. For event details, a longer obituary, and a portal for sharing memories and photos, go to: https://clcafamily.com/share-memories/mayBlossom-wilkinson-obituary/CS-20221214-282958