A few days ago was commencement day at UCSD. A bunch of our old boys/girls came back to congratulate the new Ph.D.s. One former
student, originally from Beijing now working in Newport Beach, told me that he met a Chinese couple at a fast food stand. They started
talking and found out that the Chinese man is C.P. Wen from Hong Kong. That in itself is nothing too funny or strange.
C.P. Wen led the development of co-planar waveguide technology for microwave and optical applications back in the 60s at the RCA Labs in
New Jersey. This technology has a significant impact on information transmissions and other applications. C.P. Wen now runs a private
consulting firm in southern California, after working at various places in
California. That in itself is becoming interesting.
As their conversation went on, the former student, remembering I was a
PCer, found out that Wen was a Pui-Ching graduate. All these are not particularly interesting to the Lighters.
To make a very long story short, C.P. Wen , or Cheng P. Wen, turns out to be the old brother of Carl Man ( C 35, Man Chau ? how does
that translate into Cantonese?). Note that the brothers use different spellings for their last name ( I asked C.P. Wen about this, and he
said Carl just did not know better). I remember Carl had an old brother brother Cheng Man (or Wen). I do not know where the middle
initial, P, came from. The fact C.P. Wen is the old brother of a Lighter is highly interesting.
The last time I saw Carl was back in the late 60s /early 70s in
Philadelphia. In those days, he came to Mao-Tao's house often, almost
every weekend. Sometimes he showed up at Big Nose's apartment at the hospital where Big Nose was an intern. Michael Wong was only a few
months old then. Carl was good company, always high-spirited and helpful.
Carl went on to Ohio to work for a Chemical company ( Carl graduated at UI, Urbana, in Chem. Egnr.) and got married with a bamboo girl (
as in Jokesing girl).
For some thirty years few Lighters, if any, have seen Carl. This is kind of sad.
Where are you, Carl? Come and join in with the Lighters again.
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