Jean C. Chen

In 1931 our mother was born Jean Cho-Yu Huang in Wuhan, China, where her father was CEO of Hanyung Iron Works. She was the youngest of seven children. She went to the Jingling Girls High School and then moved to America in 1950 to attend the College of Saint Scholastica in Duluth, MN. There she picked up her passion for history and graduated in 1954. She went on to obtain her Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of Washington in 1955. She met Robert L.W. Chen in Syracuse, NY while she worked for the New York Library; they were married in 1957. They had their daughter, Selena, in New York City, but moved to Atlanta when Robert became a physics professor at Emory University. They had a second child, Estella, in 1968. Jean continued her passion for history and civil justice by working as a federal investigator for the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission for ten years. She also helped found the Georgia chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans. She worked tirelessly to promote the interests and recognition of Asian Americans and Chinese culture. Her efforts, along with that of the local and national OCA, culminated in the creation of the Chinese Lunar New Year commemorative stamp series in 1992.

A celebration of Mrs. Chen's life will be held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, January 20, in the chapel of A.S. Turner & Sons Funeral Home.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Georgia Chapter of the Organizations of Chinese Americans (OCA), P.O. Box 767278 Roswell, GA 30076, www.oca_georgia.org.

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