Harry Sin Jow Chew was born on June 22, 1907. He was born in Nom Moon, a village in Tau Moon County in Guangzhou Province. Until recently, Tau Moon was a part of the Jung San County, China. He was 94 years old when he passed on April 25, 2002.
His uncle brought him to the United States in 1926 when he was 19 years old. He worked in Los Angeles for a few years and then moved to the Bay Area. He attended Francisco Junior High School and later graduated from Palo Alto High School.
In 1935 he traveled back to China and stayed for more than a year. At that time he married Jee Lan Wong. He returned to the United States after his first son, Philip was born. He was prevented from going back to China during World War II.
He moved to Hawaii in 1942. During the war he worked as a janitor, and later as a ship fitter for 3 years in the Pacific Naval Air Base in Honolulu.
Searching for an economical way to return to China, he served as a waiter on a Merchant Marine steamer in 1946. After he finished his tour of duty on the steamer, he stopped by Shanghai and then boarded another ship to arrive home in his village. He stayed home with his family for about a half of a year before sojourning back to the U.S. His second son, Paul was born in 1947. His wife passed away in 1951.
He worked mainly as a housekeeper until his retirement. His main hobbies were composing poetry and Chinese calligraphy. Some of his poems were selected for publication in a Chinese newspaper where he was awarded several prizes for those poems. Both his friends and relatives recognized him as being a good calligrapher.
Harry Chew is survived by his two sons, Philip and Paul; daughter-in-laws, Linda and Peggy; and his five grandchildren, Evelyn, Malvina, Karen, Lucinda, and Malvin.