K.C.Ling, R.I.P. (#228, Topic N)

Returning from the beach to attend K. C.'s (#223) funeral service, held this morning, I was overcome with emotions. K.C., seven years my senior, had a life that was representative of many people of Chinese ancestry born in the 1920s -- received secondary and baccalaureate education in China in the 1920~30s, forced to move about in China during the Sino-Japanese wars in the 1930~40s, honored to be selected to receive postgraduate education in USA in the 1940~50s, returned to China to serve the motherland as professionals, and came back to USA after being recruited as senior staff members by international organizations such as the World Bank. (I hasten to add that I am unqualified to be, and am not, a member of this distinguished group.) At the personal level, K.C.'s experiences were somewhat comparable to mine -- K.C. revisited his birthplace after an absence of 31 years (in my case, after 32 years); K.C. probably (if I read his bio correctly) never saw his parents again when he returned home (in my case, my mother passed away when I was 11; my father passed away in 1970 when I was a visiting professor in India; thus, I had no opportunity to see either of my parents again when I returned to Shanghai in 1981 as a visiting professor). At the professional level, K.C. was 'way ahead of me -- after many WB assignments in Malaysia, Thailand, and Nepal, K.C. was able to focus his attention on China's power-generation projects when she became a WB member in 1980; he was in charge of 11 such projects in China, including the Three Gorges project, for which he was honored by China's premier when it began operation in 2002. While at WB, K.C.'s motto was: 利用餘力，回饋祖國 (Use my remaining energy to serve the motherland). At the funeral service, one of K.C.'s former WB colleagues praised K.C. with these words: 堂堂正正做人，規規矩矩做事 (As a person, open and straight-forward; as a professional, correct and precise). Well said. K.C. has set a good example for me -- how to behave myself as a person, and how to conduct myself as a professional.