Dr. Henry Yu, Principal of St. John’s College
It is with a profound depth of sadness and loss that we hear the news that Dr. Chih (Sophia) Hsu Yu, Johannean Founder and longstanding friend of St. John’s College UBC, passed in the early morning of June 30. Dr. Hsu was an inspiration to generations of St. John’s College residents, staff, and community members—a tireless organizer of monthly luncheons that gathered our original Johannean Founders from St. John’s University Shanghai together with our own SJC UBC students for over 15 years, an accomplished forensic pathologist in the top hospitals of Shanghai and Hong Kong, and in her retirement in Vancouver a centre of community life for Johannean alumni of SJU Shanghai and SJC UBC alike.
Soon after I first became SJC Principal in 2010, I was told by my old friend the writer and journalist Helen Zia (whose father was a SJU Shanghai graduate) when I ran across her in a Johannean reunion in Las Vegas, that I needed to meet Sophia Yu because everything passed through her in the networks of Johannean alumni around the world, not only in Vancouver but between the alumni in Hong Kong and San Francisco and even China. It is one of the great honours in my life that soon after I was introduced to Dr. Hsu, I had the privilege to get to know her and her husband Dr. Alexander Hung-Chong Yu (who sadly passed of CoViD during the pandemic) at the monthly dim sum gatherings that she organized in Richmond and at events at SJC UBC over the last 15 years.
Between 2012-2025 when she finally fully retired to a seniors facility outside Toronto at the age of 97, she was a bundle of energy and sharp wit, able to tease and tell jokes seamlessly while shifting between 5 languages, her memory so acute that she could tell you someone’s phone number without checking her notes. And yet notes she still took, of the names and origins and disciplines of every SJC UBC student who came to the monthly dim sum she organized—she personally paid for every one of the 100s of students’ lunches—and she could remember a meeting with meticulous detail and refer to her notebook for the exact date and her computer to retrieve a photo she took of the occasion. Over the last few months before she unexpectedly passed, we had the opportunity to conduct a zoom-based set of oral history interviews (organized by our SJC staff Jennifer Lu) with Dr. Hsu, and she could recall a specific lunch or a dinner that one of us had been at with her over a decade ago with more acuity and precision than any of us could—including those a third of her age.
The SJC UBC alumni who conducted those interviews—Jane Wang, Chelsea Gao, Edgar Liao–had all served as Johannean Ambassadors during their time at SJC, with the mandate to act as liaisons between our SJC residents and our Johannean Founders (all of whom were in their late 80s and 90s with several over 100 since SJU Shanghai their alma mater had been closed since 1952). And yet each of them and the others who have served as Johannean Ambassadors, such as our most recent Ziwen Mei and our first Denise Fong, can be said to have been Ambassadors to Dr. Hsu first and foremost, since the world of Johanneans truly revolved around her. It was through her warmth and generosity that each also became her cherished friend.
That warmth and generosity of spirit was her essence. All through the years I knew her, she would quietly pass a gift for me and my wife and kids at the end of a gathering, surreptitiously and without ceremony handing a bag to me as I was leaving. They were always thoughtful gifts—invaluable for the meaning with which she imbued them and the generousity they embodied. Cookies from a bakery that she learned my kids liked, XO sauce filled with dried scallops that she hand made, goji berries from her backyard bush that she knew my parents would appreciate for their health. When she moved to Toronto, she passed those goji plants on to me, and the first set of berries just appeared last week outside my window.
For years after I first met her, she kept insisting that I call her Sophia, but I could never find the comfort to do so. She commanded such respect and admiration that all of us always called her Dr. Hsu. It wasn’t because she had been the Head of Pathology at HKU during her medical career in Hong Kong—that was just one facet of why we held her in such high esteem. It was because she had lived such an accomplished life full of honours and yet could giggle over a joke with such childish delight—she always treated everyone with humility and respect—that we revered her all the more.
All of us younger than her (many much younger) outgrew our surprise that someone in their late 90s could use WeChat and email with such dexterity and effect—including how utterly unremarkable it became to receive text messages from her long after midnight. She had such a zest for life that she could indulge in a series of joking text exchanges with you at 2am with the energy of a teenager. When I visited her new home in Toronto just three months ago, I saw a photo of her on the wall when she was in her late 20s in Shanghai—she had the same impish smile full of mischief and intelligence, a bright sparkle that none of us who had the privilege to know her will ever forget.
Dr. Hsu, you live on in the spirits of all of those you touched at St. John’s College UBC. But we will miss you dearly
Johannean Living Memory Project videos: Dr. Hsu and Dr. Alex Yu and Dr. Hsu – The St. John’s Experience
SJC Founders’ Formal Dinner Honouring Dr. Hsu: https://youtu.be/mFXGcUYmNac
