In Honor of Henry and Haruye Ng

Wendy L. Ng, Ph.D., is establishing the Henry and Haruye Ng Endowed Scholarship in Asian American Studies in honor of her parents Henry and Haruye Ng. Henry was an alumnus of San Francisco State University. The scholarship endowment is an investment in future generations of students at Henry’s alma mater, San Francisco State University.

Henry Ng (December 20, 1923-June 13, 2003) was born in Locke, California. He was the youngest of seven children. His father immigrated to California in 1889. His family mostly resided in the Sacramento Delta area and were probably truck farmers. His mother and three sisters died in the 1920s, probably due to the poverty and poor living conditions (death certificates list tuberculosis as the cause). Of the four children who survived to adulthood, only he and his sister Alice (Ng) Lim lived to have children. His brother William Ng died in World War II (torpedo hit the ship he was on) and sister Minnie Ng Wong, died in Missoula, Montana, from an undiagnosed appendicitis. His mother died when he was three years old. He and his brother lived at a state orphanage in Sacramento (1930 census) and his two sisters Alice and Minnie lived at the Chinese Girls’ Home in San Francisco.

In high school, Henry lived at Chung Mei Home, the Baptist Missionary Home for Boys located in El Cerrito, California. He said those were the best times of his life because he had food and a bed. When he aged out of Chung Mei home, he joined the Merchant Marine as an Ordinary Seaman (OS), worked his way up to an Able-Bodied Seaman (AB), ships carpenter, and eventually officer. He earned his Master’s license in the 1970s. He was a member of the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots.

As a merchant mariner he traveled all over the world, and his work took him out to sea for about six months a year when his children were growing up. He worked for private shipping companies on the now defunct States Marine Line and the Pacific Far East Line (Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Tahiti). He ended his career working as a merchant mariner refueling Navy ships on the high seas.

In 1954, Henry married Haruye Sagimori Ng (December 6, 1929-December 20, 2024) who was from Berkeley, California. A marriage between Chinese and Japanese Americans was not entirely unusual, but neither of them had families that would vehemently oppose such a marriage. During World War II, her family was incarcerated at the Topaz Internment Camp near Delta, Utah. She was a Registered Nurse and worked for Kaiser Permanente for many years. Henry and Haruye lived in Marin County where they raised their two children, Wendy and Lester.

After Henry retired from the Merchant Marine, he decided to earn a college degree. He attended the College of Marin, San Francisco City College, and San Francisco State University. He received his bachelor’s degree in Chinese Language (Mandarin) from San Francisco State University in 1993. While he was there, he took courses in Asian American Studies, and he would often give Wendy his papers to read or talk to her about his courses (Dr. Ben Kobashigawa was one of his instructors). Henry always believed that earning his college degree was one of his highest achievements (maybe even eclipsing his Master’s/Captain’s license).

Henry and Haruye’s belief in a college education as the best means to assure future stability fostered an expectation to go to college in their children. Their foresight and good union-paying jobs with benefits enabled them to give their children opportunities that they never had including sending Wendy to Mills College and Lester to Oregon State University.

Wendy Ng earned her bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Biology from Mills College in Oakland, California, and then her master’s and doctorate degrees in Sociology from the University of Oregon. In 2024, she retired from the California State University, East Bay, where she served as dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences. Previously, she served as a professor of Asian American Studies, department chair, and associate dean of graduate and undergraduate programs over her 35-year career at San Jose State University.

Wendy is concerned with the increasing costs of a college education and the challenges that parents face with affording their children’s education compared to earlier generations. Through her establishment of the Henry and Haruye Ng Endowed Scholarship in Asian American Studies, Wendy hopes to provide financial assistance to future generations of students who are committed to making contributions to society.