A celebration of life is being held next month for one of Richmond’s most notable war veterans, Tommy Wong, who died in March, age 101.
The event will be held Saturday, June 15 at 2 p.m. at the new Minoru Centre for Active Living on Granville Avenue.
Wong, who was the first person of Chinese-Canadian ethnicity in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), passed away March 10 at Richmond Hospital.
At the time, his close friend and fellow RCAF veteran, George Ing, said Canadian-born Wong was a quiet, intelligent and private man, but who also had a “zest for life.”
“He was very, very proud of his military service,” said Ing, a member along with Wong of the Chinese-Canadian veteran group Pacific Unit 280.
In 2017, Wong was one of five Chinese-Canadian veterans granted “The Glory of Chinese” award by the Richmond-based Canadian Community Service Association (CCSA), in recognition of their contribution towards winning full citizenship for all Chinese-Canadians.
To mark Remembrance Day in 2016, the News featured Wong and told the story of how he put a lifetime of discrimination aside to serve Canada in its hour of need during the Second World War.
Wong, who lived in a condo on Minoru Boulevard, was survived by his second wife, a sister and four children.
