Winston Sun

Winston Sun

“Just march”

This webpage is by Winston Sun’s children, about him. We know he would havethought a webpage about him would be weird, and he would have a hard time getting toit, and he would have protested but maybe liked the idea eventually. But we don’t knoweverything about him, so we hope you’ll help us with the little details about his life thatwe didn’t learn from him.

He was born in Beijing, and grew up between Beijing and Shanghai. He had a brother,Yi Xiang (Fulton). He told us he used to play in the Summer Palace sometimes, and hewent to an American high school, so he learned English. He said he started smokingcigarettes (alas) when he was 16. He was interested in Beijing opera from the time hewas a teenager. If people know more about his growing up, we would love to learnabout it.

Winston went to college in the United States, which various Suns before him had alsodone. He, and his cousin Arnold, went to Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. Winston was on the track team and also played volleyball. He graduated with a degree in sociology and a taste for Midwestern cuisine, and he could and did cook. Pot roast.Pineapple upside down cake. Potatoes, in every form. (He later impressed hisgrandchildren with his creamy, buttery mashed potatoes). He used to talk about theprices for breakfast at coffee shops and diners, and he was sorry they vanished.

We don’t know exactly how he and our mother met, and would like to know more, if youcan tell us. We know he spent time in San Francisco, and our mother went to Mills College for a time, while her brother went to Berkeley. He recently talked about how ourmother would perform in plays by a free-China theater group, and how beautiful shewas, so we know they dated in the Bay Area. They were married in Monterey in 1954 and honeymooned in Yosemite. Somewhere in this time, he was drafted into the U.S.Army and served in Korea. He once told about driving across the country in a jeep,transporting something, and even though it was dangerous, he felt carefree – like hewas on a kind of adventure. Meanwhile, our mother stayed in Monterey with Brian, who(a story says) had a pulled-out drawer for his crib for a little while.

After our father came back from Korea, he and our mother and Brian made their way toNew Haven and Yale University, where our parents worked for the Institute of FarEastern Languages. Myra and Karen were born in New Haven. We lived in a house in East Haven (still there). On some weekends, we went to New York City, where our father was part of a Beijing Opera group that rehearsed and hung out and played musicin the Bowery. We might have stayed on the East Coast. Our mom once said she hadin mind that she would work for “the phone company” (because there was only onethen), and our dad would have become a CPA. But that wasn’t for him. He really lovedthe military life. In 1962, he went back on active duty.

We moved around a lot with our father – he wasn’t the type to leave the family backhome when he was overseas, which, we learned, some soldiers did. We were inOkinawa, where he was a welfare officer, administering food and educationalassistance to families there. After that, he went to “jump” school, and became aparatrooper despite a fear of heights. He went to Vietnam, where he was wounded – he has a Bronze Star. But his favorite duty station was Taiwan, where we were in the early1970s, and where he was the public information officer. It seemed to us that he and our mother were going out to dinners and receptions at least a couple of times a week, andhe would wear his dress uniform and his medals and sash, and she would wear various evening gowns and have her hair “done” regularly. Our father left active duty in 1974, though he remained in the reserves, and in 1988 he retired as a full (“bird” – for thesilver eagle insignia) colonel.

During their retirement, when they settled in southern California, our parents enjoyedlife. We, his children, grew up, moved out, married, while they moved to a comfortable house in Whittier. Our father performed in local Beijing Opera productions several times(and once, so did our mother). They traveled – to China frequently, to see family and friends; to the Southwest canyon country; on a few cruises; to London, Paris, New York.They were always, as our mother put it, “on the go.” They attended all of the Sun family reunions.

Even after they slowed down, they liked to spend time out with friends. Their recentfavorite activity was to sit for hours, having tea or a meal at the U2 Café in Alhambra,with his cousin, Martyn, and longtime friends, the Hsiungs. Our parents also often attended Friday night potlucks at our Auntie Susan’s church.

When our mother became ill in late 2019, though, our father went back on duty. Hemarched – every morning he was at the hospital or skilled-nursing facility, before or justafter she woke in the morning, for over a month – this was his last chance to drive; hewould leave early and miss the traffic, and he liked this. Even after he learned about his own illness – lung cancer – he stayed with her in assisted living, so she wouldn’t be alone. He would have liked to be at home, but he also felt he should be there for her. I’m just going to march, he said, and he did, till the end. He and our mother were married for 66 years.

We are sorry he is gone and will miss him every day.