Obituary of William WL Chu

William Wei-Liang Chu died on Nov. 1, 2013. Born in 1922 in Nanjing , China, he was the eldest child of General Chu Pei-te, the army chief of staff under Chiang Kai -shek and Wei-Quan Chao. Honoring his father's belief that the task of rebuilding post-war China would require engineers rather than soldiers, Bill made plans to go to Germany to pursue scientific studies. En route his plans were waylaid by Pearl Harbor and he found himself in the Philippines until the end of the war. While there he was married to Anne (Ling- Mei) Yang and had a daughter. After the war and Ling-Mei's death he came to the United States to continue his education, initially enrolling at USC and later at the Colorado School of Mines at Boulder, CO where he received a BS degree in Metallurgy then a MS from Lehigh University. He spent his entire working career with GE: first in Pittsfield, Mass, later in Schenectady, NY as a metallurgical engineer working on defense related projects such as developing reaction control thrust for theX-15 aircraft. In 1961 Bill and family moved to Phoenix Az. as manager of Electronic Engineering and Technology at GE's Information System Group where he helped to develop the industry's first time-share system and magnetic thin film recording head and media for disc drive which long served as the standard in CD and DVD drives. In 1970 he returned to Schenectady as Branch Manager at the R&D Center involved with the development of artificial intelligence/vision devices; non destructive testing machines, magnetic recording for image reproduction and super-fine particulate material and fabrication processes. From 1982 until his retirement he was manager of the Information System Operation. Among the awards he received for work he oversaw were the IR100 awards for the development of "Direct Bonded copper on Ceramic" and the "Termnet 800 Magnetic Printer". After his retirement he founded TDA International, Inc. with his partner Frederick Paulson to engage in two-way technology transfers with China. Bill was a many- faceted man: he was the captain of the tennis team at CSM; a scratch golfer who hustled golf games, playing with only one iron, to make money while stranded in the Philippines; a Tai-chi master; a trained singer; a meticulous calligrapher and graphic "artist". Most of all he was gifted with a special talent for touching people. He is survived by his wife Rolin Chu and children; Mary Anne Winslow, David William Chu, Laurence Chu, Deborah Dejah, J. Michael Chu; two sisters: Jeanette Wu, Esther Yang; three brothers: Wei Yee, Wei Lee, Raymond Chu; seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at the First Presbyterian Church of Schenectady, 209 Union Street, Schenectady, NY on Saturday Nov. 16 at 2pm. In lieu of flowers please acknowledge the wonderful works of Schenectady Community Hospice.