Chia Chi Chiang, 96, of Concord died peacefully at home on Friday, November 15, 2019. Known to his many friends as Chi, he was born October 25, 1923 in Jiangsu Province, China, the fourth of five children in a farming family. As a young man he lived through the Second Sino-Japanese War, and as the Chinese Communist Revolution loomed in 1948, he emigrated to Taiwan. There he met and married his beloved wife of 64 years, Hsu Sha Chiang, and had two children. While on a business trip to the U.S. on behalf of the Taiwan Sugar Company, he saw firsthand the promise of America. He emigrated a second time to the U.S. in 1964, where he and Hsu had two additional children ten years after their first.
Chi received a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Oklahoma State University in 1964 and later studied towards a doctorate at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, reaching ABD status. Thereafter, he worked as a professional engineer until his retirement in 1994, specializing in pressure vessel analysis and design, at Bechtel, Lummus Company, Combustion Engineering, and ABB. For 12 of those years, he also helped his wife operate Hsu’s Cookery in Avon, Connecticut.
Outside of his professional work, Chi’s passions were family and gardening, in that order. In addition to his wife Hsu, he leaves his daughter Mong-Yu Blancha and her husband Barry, of Concord, son Yet-Ming Chiang and his wife Jeri Ikeda, of Weston, daughter Karen Chiang Strong and her husband James, of Nottingham, New Hampshire, and son Thomas Chiang and his husband James Abrams, of San Francisco. He also leaves nine beloved grandchildren; Jonathan Blancha and his wife Angel, David Blancha, Victoria Blancha Eckels and her husband Edward, Katherine Blancha and Elisabeth Blancha; Miki, Merrill and Casey Chiang; and Naia Strong. In China, he leaves an extended family.
Family and friends will honor and remember Chi’s life by gathering at the John C. Bryant Funeral Home, 56 Pemberton Rd, Wayland on Thursday, November 21st for visitation from 12-1 P.M. and a service at 1 P.M.