Obituaries index

Obituary for Samuel Shu Kit Kwong

Samuel Shu Kit Kwong passed away at home September 21, 2016, in Santa Monica, CA. He succumbed to complications from liver cancer.  In his final months, he was lovingly cared for by his family and continued to engage in their daily lives.

Born in Canton, China, on April 13, 1929, Sam was the third child and eldest son of Kwok Hing (Frank) and Yuk Ching (Nellie) Kwong. He was one of seven children: Dorothy (Tong), Dora (Ho), Louise (Fu), Bill, Yvonne, and Clement. His father was born in Los Angeles, CA, which gave Sam the dual citizenship which would shape his life.

Sam was raised in Canton and Hong Kong.  He divided his youth between his home in Canton and his maternal grandfather’s home in Hong Kong.  His grandfather’s home was home to his grandfather and his eight wives and their children and grandchildren—a household of nearly 50 family members.

As a youth, Sam attended military boarding school and had dreams of following his uncle, a pilot in the Flying Tigers, into a flying career. After his dream was preempted by the Communist takeover, it was decided that Sam and his siblings would take advantage of their dual citizenship and join their father in the U.S.  The family was reunited in San Francisco.

In 1950 Sam left San Francisco for Los Angeles and found work at a warehouse for an Asian giftware importer. It was there that Sam met his first wife, Momo Nagano, a Japanese-American Nisei. Soon after marriage, Sam was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to the Korea where he served as an interpreter for Chinese prisoners of war.

After the war and at the urging of his wife, Sam took advantage of the G.I. Bill and enrolled at the Art Center College of Design where he studied commercial photography. There, as luck would have it, Sam found his path to his profession of 30 years. He excelled and left Art Center before graduation to start his own freelance photo studio.

Sam’s natural gift coupled with innate confidence and business skills immersed him in the Los Angeles advertising business. He spent 30 years as his own boss, shooting for clients like Honda, Jantzen, Geary’s, Hughes Airwest, Princess Cruises, Southern California Edison and many others. His work appeared on billboards and magazines. He also shot portraits of celebrities such as Peter O’Toole, Norman Lear, Billy Wilder and David Hockney for magazines.

His marriage to Momo ended after 11 years and four children. Sam married Ann Charnock in 1969 and they had a daughter. This marriage ended after eight years and Sam eventually retired to Walla Walla, WA in 1988, after reconnecting with an old friend who had settled there. He fell in love with small-town life, made new friends and delighted them with his skills as a gourmet cook of Chinese cuisine. Sam’s reputation as a chef led to his cooking for charity auctions. One memorable dinner auction brought in over $3000 from a Seattle businessman who flew his guests to Walla Walla to eat at Sam’s famous table.

It was in Walla Walla that Sam met his third wife, Wen Cui Zhao, a professor of Asian Studies at Whitman College. They married in 2003. For years, Sam and Wen Cui traveled back and forth between Walla Walla and Kunming, China, where they owned a second home. Wen Cui would take her college students to China during the summer for immersive classes in Chinese. Sam once ended up assisting her in coaching Chinese students for a Shakespeare competition. The students ended up in the finals which were held in Hong Kong.  

Sam continued his photography and documented a traditional China that was rapidly disappearing (some of his work can be seen on his web site samkwongphoto.com).

In 2012 Sam began exhibiting signs of dementia and short-term memory loss. Eventually, he moved back to Los Angeles, where he lived with his son, Dan. 

In spite of these traumatic changes, Sam spent his final months enjoying his children and granddaughter. He attended many of Dan’s baseball games, watched his daughters and granddaughter dance in the Nisei week festival, interacted with Dan’s many artist friends and joined in family gatherings, sometimes even preparing delicious meals.

This is a brief summary of a man who lived, by his own admission, a very lucky life.

Sam is survived by his children: Maria, Dan, Diana/Didi, Barbara/Poppy, Julia; his grandchild Hana van der Steur; his son-in-law Gary van der Steur; his siblings Louise Fu, Dora Ho, Bill, and Clement; Ann Kwong (mother of Julia); and Wen Cui Zhao and her son Yifan Yang.