Adam Shen-Kung Chen, ASA, born in Taipei, Taiwan, started working in Pacific Life, California, U.S.A. since September 15h 1985 until the last day of his life, October 17th 2006. He died at age of 57 due to heart failure. Below are the memories from his friends at Pacific Life.
Singing Karaoke – Adam always liked to sing Karaoke at our parties. I decided to sing a song at our summer party and Adam joined in with me. Now I’ll always remember that. We sang a duet of “Leaving on a Jet Plane”. Adam always liked music and singing. He seemed to have a fondness for the mushy sentimental songs.
Asking me how to spell words or what they mean – since the time I started working with him (back in 1985 I think it was) Adam was always asking me to correct his English. He would ask me what words meant or how to say them. He was always trying to improve his grammar.
Dining out – the funniest thing I will always remember is how Adam would always select a dish to eat that the person next to him chose. (This was before he became diabetic). He was always wanting to try something new. Well, one time we were out to lunch after a special system project. Judy Grijalva was with us and she wanted breakfast ebcause he hadn’t eaten yet. So she ordered French Toast. Adam wanted to order the same thing. We told him that he probably wouldn’t like it but he ordered it anyway. When he got the plate he looked at it and said “what is that?” He thought it was supposed to be like toast. He decided to try it anyway – the look on his face when he tasted the French Toast was so comical. We told him to order something else so he finally did. He was just so determined that he was going to eat something new. The he ordered a hamburger and I thought it was so funny because he took the burger out of the bun and ate it by itself. That’s typical Adam.
Adam’s fondness for lottery tickets. He even wanted lottery tickets for his Christmas present one year. And he said if he ever won he would retire and we could all retire with him. It was a joke of course, we knew he would never retire.
In our earlier days in our department the employees were mostly women. Adam would make comments that we needed more men in the section (so he could talk basketball probably). Well, eventually he got his wish because our department consists of all men and I’m the only woman now. Ironic, huh?
I will miss Adam’s indomitable spirit, his dedication and how he always struggled on to live a normal life. I’m just glad that we’ll see him again in our future life in heaven as brothers and sisters. (Cyndy Jurado)