nwasianweekly.com
Feb. 16, 2008
Ben Woo, seen here in a Northwest Asian Weekly file photo from April 19, 1997, was honored as an Asian American “pioneer” by the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation in 1997.
Gentle,
inspirational Ben
By Staff
Northwest Asian Weekly
Ben Woo, a longtime leader in the local Asian American community, died Feb. 8 from heart failure. He was 84.
Born in Seattle in 1923, Woo lived behind his family’s grocery store on Weller Street in Chinatown/International District. During the Depression, his father decided they should return to China, where he invested in property on the outskirts of Shanghai. Then came the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The Woo family’s properties were all destroyed in the bombings.
In 1932, the family returned to Seattle and opened a laundry in Queen Anne. Woo had lost his English language skills and had to completely relearn the language. He went on to study meteorology at the University of Washington and the University of Chicago, and worked as a weather forecaster for the Army Air Corps during World War II.
After the war, Woo returned to Washington state and the UW. There he studied mechanical engineering and became an architect, opening his own firm in Madison Park in 1955. He later designed the original Wing Luke Asian Museum.
He married Ruth Yoneyama in 1975. Ruth Woo is well-known for her political activism, including organizing Gary Locke’s 1982 campaign for state Legislature.
Woo was extremely involved in community issues. Among his many accomplishments
and contributions, he was a founder of Kin On nursing home, a founder
of the Chinese Community Service Organization, president of the Seattle
chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and head of the Chinatown-International
District Preservation and Development Authority. He worked with Lighthouse
for the Blind, Aids Housing of Washington, the Seattle Human Rights Commission
and Mount Baker Housing Association. He was an original member of the
Washington state Commission on Asian American Affairs.
In 1995, Woo retired as director of the King County Department of Construction
and Facilities Management.
Bettie Luke, of the Organization of Chinese Americans, recalled Woo’s beginnings as a community leader: “In the mid 1950s, Ben was part of a group referred to as the ‘Young Turks’ — the next generation out from the traditional Chinatown leaders. Besides Ben Woo, the ‘Young Turks’ included Wing Luke, Ark Chin, Ruby Chow and Warren Chan. They were the first generation of Chinese Americans with roots in the community who were bilingual, adept at English, educated and inventing a hybrid of old and new ideas to bring the Chinese American community into a modern next level.”
Luke said she had been thinking of Woo “because in 2013, it will be 125 years from when the Chinese were driven out (from this area). I had wanted to talk to Ben about planning forward toward that year. Now, I will have to call upon his spirit to help me carry that through.”
She added, “I sure miss Ben’s gentle manner, wit and wisdom. We are losing our old warriors.”
Ben Woo is survived by his wife; her children, Teresa Yoneyama, of West Seattle, and Janice Leonard, of Long Beach, Wash.; his children, Teresa Murray, of Los Angeles, John Woo, of New York City, Jeffrey Woo, of San Francisco, Roger Woo, of Long Island, N.Y., and Philip Woo, of Tokyo; siblings George Woo, of Honolulu, Nina Matheson, of Chevy Chase, Md., Emma Louie, of Palo Alto, Calif., and Barbara Radke, of San Francisco; 11 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
There is no public memorial for Woo; remembrances can be sent to The Wing Luke Asian Museum, 407 Seventh Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98104; or to the Ben Woo Scholarship at the Puget Sound Mycological Society, UW Center for Urban Horticulture, P.O. Box 354115, Seattle, WA 98195.
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