Post by NZBC on Jun 8, 2013 22:34:05 GMT 12
Warren Wong,㹂細舵細舵, mathematician - Shatou
鯉痊】娯
As with many New Zealand born Chinese, Warren’s humble beginnings came froma fruit shop.His father was Wong King Soong㹂】㼎】】抻from Shatou鯉】痊】娯who emigrated to New Zealand around 1919 and his mother was Ng Tul
Tay 経】超】巽】】from Tiensum 旗】格】娯 born in Wellington but raised in China. They were known as George and Jessie Wong and ran one of the seven fruit shops owned by Jungsen people in Queen Street, Masterton.
Born in Masterton in 1934, Warren lived with his parents, two older sisters Helen and Elaine and two younger
sisters Jocelyn and Marilyn at the back of their shop. The children were expected to help their parents whenthey were old enough. Weighing fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces, calculating costs in pounds,
shillings and pence, adding things up as he went along without pencil or paper was all good exercise and
Warren on reflecting, wondered what customers thought being told by a child that they owed “two pounds,six shillings and threepence!”
The Great Depression was not long over and the SecondWorld War was fought during much of Warren’s childhood.. As his parents did not waste anything, one of Warren’s jobs was to carefully open the wooden lids from the
boxes that the fruit came in without breaking them, to send them
back to the growers for recycling. Even the nails werestraightened and recycled.
Working in the shop was accepted as everyday life in those days and Warren appreciated the lessons it taught
him in dealing with people and the sacrifices his parents gave to make life easier for their children.
His parents emphasized the importance of study and he and his sisters all went on to post secondary education. Warren’s interest in science and mathematics was stimulated at Wairarapa College where he wasdux in 1951. He obtained a University Junior Scholarship and decided to go to the University of Otago in Dunedin. There he learned a great deal, not only in the classroom, but also in being exposed to new ideasand new people in a university environment. At first he thought he would become a physicist, but thenherealized that the part of physics he liked best was the mathematics in it. So he eventually earned a M.Sc. (1stcl. Hons.) in mathematics.
Wishing to pursue postgraduate study overseas, he was influenced by a young South African lecturer,
Timothy O’Meara, who had come to Otago after getting a Princeton Ph.D. He told Warren to consider going
to the United States instead of England, which was the most common destination of New Zealanders goingabroad at that time. With a New Zealand University Postgraduate Scholarship and a Fulbright Travel Grant,Warren entered Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956.Being a graduate student at Harvard was an extraord
inary experience for Warren. America is a huge country with astonishing breadth and variety, as Warren dis
covered in travelling around in the summers. He also met many students from other countries, and learned
that mathematics was an enterprise that was international in scope. In doing the research that led to
his being granted a Ph.D. in 1959, he had to study an article written by a Dutch mathematician, in Dutch!
Returning to New Zealand in 1960, he took a lectureship in mathematics at the University of Otago, sig-nalling that he was now a professional mathematician. He taught courses at all levels in the university, andcontinued to do research in the area of group theory. In the holidays Warren would go back to Masterton and help in the shop. There he met Nellie Gee響】玳!愰, whose parents owned one of the other fruit shops.
Since she was several years younger than Warren,he had known her only as one of the children of the
large Gee family, but now he saw her in a different light!
They were married in 1962, and their first child, Carole, was born in Dunedin in 1963.
With nobody else in New Zealand doing research in group theory, Warren began to feel isolated, and de-cided to seek a position back in the United States. In 1964, with the advice of Timothy O’Meara, who wasnow back in the U.S., he took a professorship in the mathematics department at the University of NotreDame, in South Bend, Indiana, and moved there to live.Notre Dame was a very congenial place to work, and Warren
enjoyed teaching students at all levels. Contact with other mathematicians in his field was exciting, and his research led to many articles in professional journals, as well as invitations togive talks at other universities. He had two terms as department chairman, and served in the department’s executive
committee for several years. Over the years he directed eleven students to their Ph.D. degrees.
Although South Bend is not a very exciting city, it is a good place to raise children. Warren and Nellie had two more daughters, Frances and Andrea. His research work led to opportunities to travel, such as a six-month long symposium in England and a two-month visit to China in 1983 to give a short course on his own research. Nellie acquired a notable reputation as a teacher of Chinese cooking, at the South Bend branch
ofIndiana University. All three of their children went to Notre Dame for their undergraduate work.
They stayed in Indiana for almost forty years, with trips back to New Zealand every few years to see family. By the time he retired in 2002, all of their daughters had lefthome, andwere living on the west coast of the United States.
In 2003 they sold their house in South Bend and moved to FosterCity, in the San Francisco Bay area. Carole lives in Los Angeles, with her daughters Elena and Dara, her husband George having died in 2007 from a rare form of cancer.
Frances, her husband Michael, and children Jessica,Joshua and Jonathan, live just 10 minutes’ drive south of Warren. Andrea and her husband Paul and daughter Cecilia live in Seattle. So Warren and Nellie see their children and grandchildren more often than they would have if they had stayed in South Bend and living in California is yet another new experience for them.
Warren feels blessed to have been able to make a living doing something he loved to do. He found doing
research very satisfying. Discovering new mathematics was exciting and fun. He also grew to like teach
ing more and more, as he looked for creative ways to help students learn. He frequently taught courses at
an elementary level, and it was especially rewarding when students who had started the term believing that they
were not good at mathematics found by the end of the term that they had actually could do something
worthwhile in the subject.
Warren, now totally retired, does no teaching or research in mathematics, although he still subscribes
to some professional journals and reads articles thatcatch his interest. His volunteer work includes teaching a safe driving course for people aged 50 or over. He and Nellie are active in church, and belong to an active interfaith dialogue group. Now that they live in the vicinity of San Francisco, friends visit them much
more often than when they lived in Indiana, and they enjoy that very much. There is little time to be bored.
And of course their grandchildren keep them busy. Life is good for them. Condensed from an article by Warren Wong www.tungjung.org.nz/images/stories/newsletters/2009/Cover_page.pdf
鯉痊】娯
As with many New Zealand born Chinese, Warren’s humble beginnings came froma fruit shop.His father was Wong King Soong㹂】㼎】】抻from Shatou鯉】痊】娯who emigrated to New Zealand around 1919 and his mother was Ng Tul
Tay 経】超】巽】】from Tiensum 旗】格】娯 born in Wellington but raised in China. They were known as George and Jessie Wong and ran one of the seven fruit shops owned by Jungsen people in Queen Street, Masterton.
Born in Masterton in 1934, Warren lived with his parents, two older sisters Helen and Elaine and two younger
sisters Jocelyn and Marilyn at the back of their shop. The children were expected to help their parents whenthey were old enough. Weighing fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces, calculating costs in pounds,
shillings and pence, adding things up as he went along without pencil or paper was all good exercise and
Warren on reflecting, wondered what customers thought being told by a child that they owed “two pounds,six shillings and threepence!”
The Great Depression was not long over and the SecondWorld War was fought during much of Warren’s childhood.. As his parents did not waste anything, one of Warren’s jobs was to carefully open the wooden lids from the
boxes that the fruit came in without breaking them, to send them
back to the growers for recycling. Even the nails werestraightened and recycled.
Working in the shop was accepted as everyday life in those days and Warren appreciated the lessons it taught
him in dealing with people and the sacrifices his parents gave to make life easier for their children.
His parents emphasized the importance of study and he and his sisters all went on to post secondary education. Warren’s interest in science and mathematics was stimulated at Wairarapa College where he wasdux in 1951. He obtained a University Junior Scholarship and decided to go to the University of Otago in Dunedin. There he learned a great deal, not only in the classroom, but also in being exposed to new ideasand new people in a university environment. At first he thought he would become a physicist, but thenherealized that the part of physics he liked best was the mathematics in it. So he eventually earned a M.Sc. (1stcl. Hons.) in mathematics.
Wishing to pursue postgraduate study overseas, he was influenced by a young South African lecturer,
Timothy O’Meara, who had come to Otago after getting a Princeton Ph.D. He told Warren to consider going
to the United States instead of England, which was the most common destination of New Zealanders goingabroad at that time. With a New Zealand University Postgraduate Scholarship and a Fulbright Travel Grant,Warren entered Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956.Being a graduate student at Harvard was an extraord
inary experience for Warren. America is a huge country with astonishing breadth and variety, as Warren dis
covered in travelling around in the summers. He also met many students from other countries, and learned
that mathematics was an enterprise that was international in scope. In doing the research that led to
his being granted a Ph.D. in 1959, he had to study an article written by a Dutch mathematician, in Dutch!
Returning to New Zealand in 1960, he took a lectureship in mathematics at the University of Otago, sig-nalling that he was now a professional mathematician. He taught courses at all levels in the university, andcontinued to do research in the area of group theory. In the holidays Warren would go back to Masterton and help in the shop. There he met Nellie Gee響】玳!愰, whose parents owned one of the other fruit shops.
Since she was several years younger than Warren,he had known her only as one of the children of the
large Gee family, but now he saw her in a different light!
They were married in 1962, and their first child, Carole, was born in Dunedin in 1963.
With nobody else in New Zealand doing research in group theory, Warren began to feel isolated, and de-cided to seek a position back in the United States. In 1964, with the advice of Timothy O’Meara, who wasnow back in the U.S., he took a professorship in the mathematics department at the University of NotreDame, in South Bend, Indiana, and moved there to live.Notre Dame was a very congenial place to work, and Warren
enjoyed teaching students at all levels. Contact with other mathematicians in his field was exciting, and his research led to many articles in professional journals, as well as invitations togive talks at other universities. He had two terms as department chairman, and served in the department’s executive
committee for several years. Over the years he directed eleven students to their Ph.D. degrees.
Although South Bend is not a very exciting city, it is a good place to raise children. Warren and Nellie had two more daughters, Frances and Andrea. His research work led to opportunities to travel, such as a six-month long symposium in England and a two-month visit to China in 1983 to give a short course on his own research. Nellie acquired a notable reputation as a teacher of Chinese cooking, at the South Bend branch
ofIndiana University. All three of their children went to Notre Dame for their undergraduate work.
They stayed in Indiana for almost forty years, with trips back to New Zealand every few years to see family. By the time he retired in 2002, all of their daughters had lefthome, andwere living on the west coast of the United States.
In 2003 they sold their house in South Bend and moved to FosterCity, in the San Francisco Bay area. Carole lives in Los Angeles, with her daughters Elena and Dara, her husband George having died in 2007 from a rare form of cancer.
Frances, her husband Michael, and children Jessica,Joshua and Jonathan, live just 10 minutes’ drive south of Warren. Andrea and her husband Paul and daughter Cecilia live in Seattle. So Warren and Nellie see their children and grandchildren more often than they would have if they had stayed in South Bend and living in California is yet another new experience for them.
Warren feels blessed to have been able to make a living doing something he loved to do. He found doing
research very satisfying. Discovering new mathematics was exciting and fun. He also grew to like teach
ing more and more, as he looked for creative ways to help students learn. He frequently taught courses at
an elementary level, and it was especially rewarding when students who had started the term believing that they
were not good at mathematics found by the end of the term that they had actually could do something
worthwhile in the subject.
Warren, now totally retired, does no teaching or research in mathematics, although he still subscribes
to some professional journals and reads articles thatcatch his interest. His volunteer work includes teaching a safe driving course for people aged 50 or over. He and Nellie are active in church, and belong to an active interfaith dialogue group. Now that they live in the vicinity of San Francisco, friends visit them much
more often than when they lived in Indiana, and they enjoy that very much. There is little time to be bored.
And of course their grandchildren keep them busy. Life is good for them. Condensed from an article by Warren Wong www.tungjung.org.nz/images/stories/newsletters/2009/Cover_page.pdf
