Fred Fang

The children of Fred Fang are sad to announce his death on Friday, October 13, 2023 in
New York. Dad enjoyed the love, laughter and encouragement of his big extended family as
well as a cosmopolitan career as a Manhattan-based architect.
Fred Kuang-Hu Fang was born to Fang Chih and Fang I-Chih (nee Masue Ueki)
in Nanking, China on December 1, 1930, and was the third of eleven children growing up in
wartime China. He eventually left the closeness of his extended family, which included his
paternal grandmother and other children, to attend high school in Nanking, but made frequent
visits to nearby Shanghai where the family had settled. The disruptions of the Chinese Civil War
following World War II caused the family to emigrate to Taiwan and re-build their life in Taipei.
He then studied architecture in Tainan and during his college years serendipitously served as a
student guide for a visit by the architect, I.M. Pei.
Dad emigrated to the United States, continued his architectural studies at the University
of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, and then left for New York City to join the firm of I.M. Pei &
Partners where he remained for the near entirety of his career. He married Juliana (Chung-Jen)
Hsia on October 11, 1958 in Manhattan, and then raised four children, Edward, Jennifer,
Kenneth and George, in Dumont, N.J., and Scarsdale, New York. He filled his family life with
Christmas mornings; camping and fishing trips; sports, ballet, swimming and music lessons;
handyman projects; photography and home movies; playing mahjong with friends; driving the
family station wagon cross-country to California and up and down the coast to New England and
Florida; and visiting his own siblings scattered across the country.
He was passionate about architecture as both career and art, and was proud of his
contributions to some of the firm's signature projects such as the Dallas Symphony Hall, the
National Center for Atmospheric Research (Boulder, CO), the John F. Kennedy Presidential
Museum & Library (Boston, MA), and the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in
Washington, D.C. After the Chinese government commissioned Mr. Pei to build the first
Western project in China, Dad worked in Beijing from 1980 to 1983 to manage the completion
of the Fragrant Hill Hotel, which represented the pinnacle of his career as well as his
contribution to architecture in China. During his retirement, he enjoyed an independent and
quiet life with his family in New York, cherishing the addition of his grandchildren, Jamie, Alex,
Andrew, Courtney, Theresa and Luke, and great-grandson, Bennett, and enjoying both U.S. and
international travels to see family, friends and the masterpieces of world architecture. He is
survived by his children, great/grandchildren, and siblings, Grace, Jolson, Emily, Edith, Irene,
and David; and predeceased by his wife and siblings, Ann, Lily, Catherine and Shirley.
The family will honor him with a memorial service at the Higgins and Bonner Funeral
Home in Westfield, New Jersey on Saturday, October 21st at 9:00 am. For those individuals
wishing to share condolences, in lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to The Fang Chih Memorial Fund, where additional information is available.