It is with deep sadness that I report that my friend Jim Hsieh passed on this week. Jim died suddenly, at home in Williamson County, and apparently without suffering.
Jim’s family and friends are developing a memorial service. The tentative date is Saturday February 2, 2008.
I have taken over this blog of Jim’s to use it as a information source for the memorial service and as a tribute to Jim. We are gathering images, music, and memories to post here and to include in the memorial gathering. Please send anything you would like to share to millergh@gmail.com or post comments to this blog.
Update – I have begun adding photos and images to a FriendsOfJimHsieh flickr account. You can click on the flickr images Drawings, Paintings, and Photos link on the right of this page to view all the sets. Please add comments to the images if you like. Images are kept in sets according to the source.
Bud Miller
January 28, 2008 at 9:16 pm |
Hello Bud,
I went to high school in Bangkok, Thailand and Jim was in my class of ‘62.
We have been in touch again over the last 12 years and I considered him one of the most loving, generous and kind friends I have ever known. I last saw him at a 60’s reunion in Oregon in 2005. He regaled us every night with his songs and radiant smile. All of us who knew him loved him very much and we join with all his friends far and wide to honor his incredible spirit.
January 28, 2008 at 10:10 pm |
Thanks Ellen – We heard a lot about the high school reunion around here. Jim was thrilled to re-connect with all of you. Jim’s brother Johnny is here, and listening to him last night I was again struck by what a citizen of the world Jim was.
I just scanned Jim’s nametag from the reunion and will post it to the flicker account linked on the page at the left.
- Bud
January 29, 2008 at 8:22 am |
Hello Bud,
Not only were we classmates, but our families were friends. His dad worked for the Chinese Embassy and my dad worked for the UN in Bangkok. My first memory of Jimmy was how friendly and bright he was and what a gifted artist he was, even at that young age! I think we were around 14 years old. He would grab any scrap of paper and draw cartoons at recess and between classes. All the kids would gather around to watch blank pieces of paper magically become characters we recognized instantly.
We were still at the old International Children’s Center in Bangkok and after school, we would play basketball and goof around until it was time to go home for dinner. There were four of us; Jimmy and Chauncy Chen; Rudy and me. If memory serves me correctly, I believe he was the best basketball player. Sometimes, I would visit Jimmy at his house and he would do some body building and he developed quite a physique. That was when he practiced his guitar playing and sang the songs of the ’50s. He had a great voice and one day, I set up an oscilloscope with a microphone in the science lab and the waveforms his pure notes produced were just perfect! My favorite song that he used to sing was the Platters “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”. One time I arranged through a Thai friend for him to sing at the radio station. There were kids dancing until it was his turn to perform. With his first notes, all dancing stopped and all the Thai kids just stared at him with their mouths wide open. This made him really nervous and his tempo kept getting faster. The band had a hard time keeping up with him and we all had a good laugh afterwards.
I introduced him to his first crush, Maria. She was beautiful, not just in looks but in personality and poise. Her mother was American and her father was Thai. She was very well brought up and proper but full of fun and very easy to talk to; and I thought much too good for me; but I knew they would be a perfect match and they were! Jimmy’s father got transferred after our junior year so he left us and I didn’t see him again until we were both in college in 1963. It was the weekend that Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, when we were to meet with Maria and Jody on the Indiana University campus. I met him and his brother, Johnny, in Palo Alto in the ‘90 and again at the ‘98 Long Beach ISB reunion and also the following year in Chicago for a ‘60 Kids reunion.
No matter what the occasion, Jimmy was the life of any party and often the center of attention. His wonderful sense of humor was unique and infected me every time! I will truly miss him but all his great qualities will live on in my memory!
January 30, 2008 at 6:20 pm |
It is difficult to explain in English all I feel, so what I am going to do is to smile and repeat what he alwais says (I am using the present intentionally): “It is ok”.
But what I really need is to cry with his friends.
A big hug, Bud.
I think I took this picture in Spain. and it was in September.