Bernice Hung Kai Chang's Obituary
It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Bernice (Wong) Chang on June 4, 2024. She was a retired teacher, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and advocate within the Chinese community. Because of her resilience and ‘pake’ spirit, Bernice nearly reached her centennial. She witnessed Hawai’i’s evolution through history from a colonial territory to statehood.
Born in 1925 and raised in Wailuku, Maui, to Tien Fong and Beatrice Wong, Bernice grew up during the Great Depression and World War II, living above her parents' store with her parents and two siblings. She attended Maui public schools and was the Baldwin High School valedictorian. As a teenager, she spent her summers employed at the Maui Land and Pineapple Company cannery in Lahaina as a pineapple weigher, a flume watcher, and pineapple counter.
She was a proud graduate of the University of Hawaii Manoa, where she completed her undergraduate degree in three years due to the War. One of her life highlights was completing her student teaching in Rochester, New York, then returning to Honolulu to become a public school educator. After teaching at various elementary schools around Oahu from Nānāikapono to Pauoa, eventually settling at Waialae Elementary teaching 1st and 2nd grades, where she taught a number of Hawaiian musicians, including Israel Kamakawiwo`ole and Weldon Kekauoaha.
After her retirement, she got involved with the Retired Teachers Association on O`ahu, attended luncheons with the Association of Chinese University Women (founded by her aunt, Elsie Ching), and learned Mandarin with the China Friendship Club. In 1983, she fulfilled a lifelong dream of going to China.
Bernice was one of the last living members of her community, and was preceded in death by her husband, Gary, sister Beatrice, mother and father. She is survived by daughter Karen, son-in-law Bill, grandchildren Kayla, Keenan, Clinton and Tiare, great-grandchildren Olivia and Kailani, brother Stanley Wong (Blossom) and numerous nieces and nephews.
Private services will be held. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the University of Hawai`i Foundation College of Education Scholarship in memory of Bernice Chang.
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