Deaths Deaths (January 04, 2006)

Yvonne Chou

Yvonne Liu Chou, 97, a 20-year resident of Palo Alto, died Dec. 25 of natural causes.

She was born Oct. 6, 1908, in Hupei, China. Her Chinese name, Tun-ch'in, means "generous and diligent," which characterized her life. Her father was a bank accountant; her mother was a homemaker. She had three brothers and a sister. She graduated valedictorian from Hupei Normal School in 1930. She was offered teaching positions at five schools based on her essay, "Knowledge is Power," which was based on a Francis Bacon essay.

She was an innovative teacher in school using the Montessori method of teaching. She took many black-and-white Agfa photos of school children in drama and musicals which she wrote and directed.

Her husband, Tsien-Chung Chou, was a professor of European history and a Chinese diplomat to the United Nations in New York.

She was a great cook and hostess, having dinner parties for more than 20 guests. Many of the young Chinese students of friends stayed over at their house in New York. She was a successful matchmaker, getting four couples married.

She moved with her husband to Palo Alto from New York City in 1978, after his retirement. They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in Palo Alto in 1994.

While her husband visited Stanford Hoover Library daily on weekdays, she corresponded with dozens of friends and relatives in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Her favorite books were literary biographies and essays.

She often contributed articles to Chinese magazines and newspapers. She also reprinted a scholarly work by her uncle, Liu Fengzhang, who was an education minister in Hupei and a scholar on the "I Ching." His commentaries -- "Zhou Yi Ji Zhu" - were originally published 1934 and had been long out of print. She wrote a 28-page appendix on her uncle's life.

She enjoyed tending roses and a vegetable garden in Palo Alto. The couple moved to a retirement home in Sunnyvale in 1999 and her husband died in 2000. She moved to Fremont in 2003.

She is survived by her younger brother, Liu Tun-jian of Nanchang, China; sons, Peter Y. Chou of Mountain View and James Chou of San Jose,; daughter, Margaret Cheng of Palo Alto and New York; six grandchildren and two great-grandsons. A memorial service was held Dec. 31.

Jerome Rubin

Jerome William Rubin, 86, a longtime resident of Menlo Park, died Dec. 1.

He had been a resident of Menlo Park for more than 50 years.

He was widely admired for his intellect, wit and charm. A man of ideas, he immersed himself in the social sciences and current events and cultivated a broad circle of like-minded friends and acquaintances.

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, he moved to California in 1938. Drafted early in World War II, he attended the U.S. Army Language Program at Stanford University where he studied Chinese (Mandarin). He was then sent to Chunking, China, where he served in the U.S. Military Liaison Office during the fall of Chiang Kai-shek and the rise of Mao Tse-tung.

He returned to the United States in 1946, resumed classes at Stanford, and graduated officially as a member of the Class of 1943.

His entire career was with the U.S. government, principally as a research analyst on China with the Department of Defense (Pentagon) and the Central Intelligence Agency. His last post was as the chief of the San Francisco office of the agency, 1971-74, when he retired. After retirement, he was an active volunteer with the Palo Alto Chapter of Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic.

He was preceded in death by his first wife and the mother of his children, Beatrice, who died in 1968. He is survived by his wife, Eleanor; his two sons, Richard (Judy) and Daniel (Gretchen); his sister, Patty Lamon of San Diego; and one grandson.

Memorial contributions may be made to Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, 488 West Charleston Road, Palo Alto, CA 94306.

Vivian Turnbull

Vivian Williams Turnbull, 78, a longtime former resident of Palo Alto, died Dec. 10.

Born Aug. 19, 1927, and raised in San Francisco, she attended Lincoln High School. She later attended Foothill College, finally transferring to San Jose State University, where she received her bachelor's degree in history in 1976.

She lived in Palo Alto for almost 20 years from the 1980s to the turn of the century. During that time, she worked as a manager of information systems for the pharmaceutical company Syva until her retirement in 1993. She was active as a docent for the Mid-Peninsula Open Space Preserves throughout the 1990s. She moved to Naperville, Ill., in 2001.

She is survived by her son, Tom Turnbull, and daughter-in-law, Ellen, of Naperville, Ill.; son, Dave Turnbull, and daughter-in-law, Linda, of Thousand Oaks; sister, Joyce Crandall of McLean, Va.; four grandchildren and a nephew.

Services were held Dec. 12 in Naperville, Ill. Memorial donations may be made to the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association, 225 North Michigan Ave., Ste. 1700, Chicago, IL 60601.

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