Baijun Tian's Personal Life

Tian's Personal Life

In Memory of My Father, Tian HongFang, 1938-2011

On Thursday afternoon, March 10th, 2011 (Beijing time) or Wednesday night, March 9th, 2011 (Los Angeles time), my father passed away unexpectedly after battling several medical complications for about a month in hospital following his esophageal cancer surgery. I was shocked and saddened deeply by his passing. I cried almost the whole night that night. I could not believe that my father has left me. I could not believe that my father did not even have a chance to see me and say good-bye to me before his passing. Last time we saw each other face to face was almost 6 years ago, in 2005, my only trip back to China and my hometown (Heze, Shandong Province) after I came to America in 1996. During the past 10 years, my father always wanted to visit America and I also always wanted him to visit me too. However, very unfortunately, my father never made his trip to America.

My father was born in 1938 in a poor and underdeveloped rural village in Heze, Shandong Province, China. He has lived most, if not all, his life in my hometown. During the Great Chinese Famine (1958-1961), my grandfather passed away due to hunger. As the oldest son in the family, my father had to help my grandmother to take care of the whole family with 8 siblings. As a result, my father could not attend a university as he always wished although his academic grades in middle school is very good. Instead, my father attended a normal school (or teachers' college) in Heze and became an elementary math teacher in my hometown. Through his low salary from teaching, my father successfully helped my grandmother raising all my uncles and aunts till they all growed up and had their own families.

My father and my mother got married in 1963 and they also successfully raised my brother, my two sisters and me in a very hard condition. My mother worked in the fields. So did my father besides his teaching responsibility in school. However, my father and mother sent all of us to schools and fully supported our education. In order for us to fully concentrate on our studies, they usually did all the field and house work instead of asking us to help them. Although they did not have much money, they would take all means to raise and save money for us to use in school. My father also spent a lot of time with us on our homework. Since my father could not go to a university, he always wanted us to fullfil his university dreams. Under my father's strong support and encouragement, my brother, my second sister and I were all admitted to university except for my first sister. This was a great accomplishment for a countryside family during late 80s and early 90s in China. My brother, my two sisters and I all owed a lot to my father.

My father has a strong impact on my career. It was my father's early teaching that gave me a childhood dream that some day I could be a mathematician or a scientist. It was my father's and my mother's hard work and frugal living that gave me a chance to attend Peking University, the best university in China. My university study also paved the way for my graduate and postgraduate studies in the USA and my scientific career at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

My father also has a strong impact on my character. My father was a kind person and always willing to help others. He was a leader of our big family and also in the village. He was straightforward and determined for his doings. Sometimes he was even a little bit stubborn. I believe that my straightforwardness and stubbornness all came from him. My father is a hard worker and I am one too.

My father will always live in my heart and will be solely missed.

Rest in peace, father.

Baijun Tian
05/06/2011
La Crescenta, CA, USA.