David and I were first cousins on our mothers’ side. What made it special for me was that not only did I not have many cousins, but David was the closest in age to me. Even though we were separated by many miles, to me we always had a special bond.

 

     My earliest recollection of David was when he was about 6 years old in Sacramento. I grew up on a street with lots of boys and boys will be boys. Somebody had firecrackers and lit a bunch in a bag. I have this vision of David frantically running away from a bag of exploding firecrackers in close pursuit. Of course, David thought that was fun and exciting and enjoyed the danger.

 

     As we got older, we seldom saw each other, but I was always aware of his accomplishments. He was gifted and talented in academics and music. Whenever we got together, it was the same fun, easygoing, happy, love of life, David. He was the one I would want to sit with when the families would get together.

 

     I was so proud of David’s accomplishments, that I would brag to my patients that I had a cousin with a MD-PhD who ran a research lab at Johns Hopkins Medical School. I was especially proud that he continued to be humble, laughed a lot, enjoyed life, loved his family, and was a man of great faith. His faith was quite unique in higher academia.

 

     I once visited his lab at Johns Hopkins. Down the halls were studies of research on Calcium Signaling. Even though I have some medical background, this information was way over my head. This was just another reminder to me of how incredibly wonderful and complex life is. David loved unlocking the mysteries of just this one microscopic but critical area of life.

 

     David’s research and understanding of molecular explanations helped confirm his faith in his God. David is with his Creator now. Of this, I am certain. He is being awed and mesmerized by the presence of his Heavenly Father. His faith was real when he was with us, and now David is realizing the object of his faith.

 

     David Yue will be greatly missed by all who knew him. I miss him.

 

Joseph You, DDS, cousin

Sacramento, CA

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     The first time I met David was in Taiwan, on one of those summer learning trips also called the Love Boat. I had heard that my boyfriend’s (now husband, Joe’s) cousin would be on the trip, but I did not meet David until later in the 4 week period because we were not on the same bus.

 

     When I think about David, I think of passion, wonder, smart, smiling, laughing, and joy.

• Passion-for his family, research, piano, keyboard. I saw him play piano or the 

keyboard in my home, in a hotel, in his home, and anybody’s home we were both at that had a piano or keyboard.

• Wonder-David was amazed at how things worked in the body. His research on Calcium Signaling is proof of that.

• Smart-His degrees and accomplishments tell just a bit of the story.

• Smiling and laughing-I am sure we all remember David doing that.

• Joy-David showed his joy many times. But, I saw the joy in David’s face and 

words when he lived to see his 90’s plus father receive Jesus Christ as His Savior and Lord. We talked about the grace and goodness of God to allow his father to live long enough to finally acknowledge that his brilliance, accomplishments, even disinterest for a time, could not earn or cause him (David’s dad) to deserve God’s salvation. It was and always will be, the free gift and grace of God to those who repent and receive the gift by faith.

 

     I will miss David’s passion, wonder, smile and joy. See you in Heaven one day.

 

Christine You,cousin's wife

Sacramento, CA 

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Words cannot describe the emptiness we feel right now or the pain in our hearts. We can't even imagine how all of you must feel.  

 

Uncle David was an amazing person to all of us as a husband, father, brother, uncle, and friend. We feel privileged to have had the opportunity to know such an amazing man.   His influence, impact, and example will live on in our memories forever.  

 

All of our love,

Ji Im and Jayson Yuan- David's nephew

SF Bay area, CA

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During the short time that I met David early in the year, I sensed his kindness, sincerity, warmth and consideration. It was a moment to be remembered forever that we were fortunate to cross our path in our adulthood.

 

Betty Rodman, 2nd cousin

Los Angeles, CA

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Hi Guys,

 

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss.  I was just informed last night and couldn't go back to sleep.

 

I am shocked and in disbelief.  Your Dad was so young and energetic.  

 

You had a really incredible father .  He was a very passionate person and I know he is extremely proud of all 3 of you.

 

All 3 of you have become great young men now and at least you have your brothers and mother to support each other.  

 

My thoughts and prayers are with you.

 

Chris Yue- David's nephew

Hong Kong

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I am deeply saddened by the sudden death of Uncle David. No words that can truly ease the pain of a sudden loss like this...

I'm proud to have such a kind, warm and brilliant Uncle. My prayers and thoughts are with him and with those he left behind.

Please be strong and accept the most sincere condolences from my parents, me and my family!

 

Dennis Yu & Family- second cousin

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Our hearts are truly saddened by the loss of David.

 

The first time we met David was when he went to Taiwan for the summer camp in 1975.  Our family was so excited that we finally got to meet David; we heard so much about David since he was born, and we felt he was part of the family right away.  Though we didn't see David often through the years, but we always got update from Uncle Alfred and Auntie Virginia about David and his great achievements.  

 

May the Lord give you and family the courage and strength.

 

Auntie Susan, Cousin Raymond, Dorothy, Mitchell and Angela

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(VIdeo on Memorial Service 3)

 

Hello, my name is Jonathan Yue and I am David’s youngest son. Remembering my dad makes me think of three things, his passion, his playfulness, and his perseveration.

First and foremost, he was passionate about everything he did. This allowed him to excel in his work at Hopkins. He and his students published 8 major papers in the last year alone. His bag was always heavy and his heart hopeful with all the diverse books that he wanted to read. In his quest for God, he recently led a course on Reasons to Believe, reinforcing and building faith in the community of this church.

Second, my dad was playful. No matter what activity my brothers and I pursued, dad was always there, either cheering us on or learning the new things for himself. When my older brothers got into the Pokemón Trading Card Game, there my dad was, playing avidly with them. When we got onto a sports team, my dad was there, cheering us on, practicing with us in the backyard, and even critiquing us. One striking memory is at one of my soccer games, where I had driven there myself, and about a ten minutes into the game, I heard a voice yelling, “GO Jon Jon!!” It was my dad, inexorably late, but still supporting me.

Third, my dad always always perseverated. Perseveration is the medical term for the uncontrollable tendency to keep on doing something. He had a hard time stopping anything once he got started, and a hard time starting up after he stopped. This invariable made him late. He played the piano nightly, and wouldn’t stop, even as the rest of the family tried to get to sleep. After his usual late dinner, he would just lay down on the floor in front of our sofa. One time, when asked what he was doing, my father replied simply, “Just following gravity!” He perseverated at pursuing the truth. No matter what he did, all he wanted was the truth from things or people. In his work and in his faith, he pursued the truth of the universe. Lastly, he perseverated in his love for us, supporting and celebrating our accomplishments while at the same time speaking truth into our lives. For example, I am really not a bad singer, but dad thought that I was slightly off tune at times. When we opened his presents a few nights ago I got a great surprise. He had given me “Singing for Dummies.” Thank you, Dad for that truth.

So help me take these qualities from you and share them with the world in the same way you did. A passion for learning and for God, a playful attitude that makes others around me feel loved and included, and a perseveration for the things that I do, even if it makes me late.

 

Jonathan Yue, David's youngest son

Senior, Gilman Upper School

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(Video on Memorial Service 3)

 

Hello everyone, I am Michael, and I am David’s oldest son. While many have spoken about my ba ba as a scientist, brother, and friend, for me he was so much more. His values became my values, and those that stood out to both of us are always to explore the world in order to seek for truth.

I remember talking with dad about why he became a scientist. He responded, “well, I essentially had to become a scientist.” And while I initially chalked this up to something about the expectations of tiger parents, Ba explained that this was more due to his nature than the hopes of his father or mother. His very nature demanded that he understand the world around him.

While many of you learned many truths from him, I think it is safe to say that you wanted to learn from David. However, we had the unique burden of learning from David even when we didn’t want to. During high school, late at night, there were many times when I thought about asking Ba for help with physics, or calculus. However, when asking for help, I had to be careful. Ba possessed an inexorable patience when teaching. And while this was generally a good quality, there are times when a tired high school student just wants the answers so that he can go to bed. But when you ask Ba for help, oh boy do you get it. Derivations, extra equations, and possible variations of the questions that are on the problem set. All followed up by an “isn’t that so interesting?” YES BA, IT’S INTERESTING, but I am tired. “Ah, but it’s so interesting!” Inexorable patience. Thank goodness we have a mom who just gives the answers.

While Ba probed the deep depths of calcium channels in a way never before understood by man, I see exploration on a much more macro scale. Like my father’s ancestors, I too would strike out on a figurative journey across the oceans, seeking new and strange lands, illuminating the dark. My dream is to look both into the human body and outward to other planets as a NASA flight surgeon, combining medicine and planetary science, exploring in order to seek the truth, in the spirit of my father. In this way, I believe I can best embody the spirit of my father and his ancestors, ever searching, ever seeking.

Thank you Ba for your energy and your spirit. Thank you for your faith and friendship. Although I am so sad right now, I look forward to when we meet again so that we may share what we will find.

 

Michael Yue, David's oldest son

FIrst year medical student, University of Maryland School of Medicine

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(video on Memorial Service 3)

 

My name is Daniel, and I am David’s middle son. You’ve heard a lot about my dad as a scientist and as a teacher. My dad was also my teacher, but beyond that one of my best friends, my counselor, and my role model in life. Being raised by a premier scientist with such a strong faith has done more for my faith than I can ever really express; in a culture that swears that science and faith cannot be reconciled, I learned the opposite lesson from my dad's life.

 

My dad believed that truth uncovered through science or through faith was ultimately pointing to the same underlying reality --- that is, God, and the framework of the marvelous universe around us, that he created. I’m going to reflect briefly on what drove my dad to so strongly believe that; I’m going to reflect briefly on wonder.

 

It was the spring of 2009, and my family had taken a vacation to Maui, one of the beautiful Hawaiian Islands. One afternoon, we ascended Mt. Haleakala, the “house of the sun”, where Hawaiian mythology claims that the demigod Maui captured and restrained the sun, lengthening day and shortening night. There, we watched a beautiful sunset over the low floor of clouds that extended infinitely out into the horizon.

 

[Put up photo of dad at Haleakala.]

 

But, as beautiful as it was, that sunset wasn’t to be the most beautiful thing we saw on that mountain. Although some in our group wanted to go back down because of the cold, my dad held out that we should stay and see the stars come out. And we sat there and enjoyed the last breaths of the evening air, come out they did, slowly at first and then in hordes, until there was no place left in the sky without a star. My mom, brothers, and aunt had retreated to the car because of the intense cold that had descended with the night, but my dad and I remained, eyes transfixed on the heavens, inundated with the wonder and beauty of the stars. And we both felt it, more than I had ever felt before---the doxa glory of God had filled the air and the heavenly hosts were praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.”

 

My dad’s God was the one that created that beauty and opened our eyes to see it and wonder. That wonder that my dad and I experienced on the top of that mountain was the same wonder that drove my dad’s passion for science. To him, science was the ultimate act of worship; science was a way of uncovering the beauty of the universal framework that God created, in the same way that the sunset uncovered the beauty of the stars that night on Haleakala.

 

I’ve spent many a night in his office in our basement at home, just marveling with him at how amazing the universe is and the way that we've come to understand God's structuring of it as humans. Wonder at God and his creation is perhaps the greatest gift that my dad passed on to me, one that has led me to want study science at university and beyond, that I might marvel at God in the same way that my dad did.

 

It still seems to me the greatest absurdity that he’s gone so soon, so suddenly.  It breaks my heart that he’s going to miss so much of my and my brothers’ lives, that he’ll never get to meet our children or see the people that we become as adults. It breaks my heart that my mom, no matter how strong she is, will have to face the years ahead without the love of her life. I mourn for the loss of the way things were, that our family will never again be complete in this life.

Yet I do not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since my dad and I believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep before us. In my dad’s own words, “what greater hope can we have?”. And so, as my final goodbye on earth to my Dad, I say, “Thank you, Dad, for all that you’ve given to me and taught me. You have run your race well and with perseverance, you have made your Lord proud, and you have finished strong. So, dad, until we meet again in the presence of our Lord and in knowledge of all that we wondered together, it’s my turn to run my race, and I will do my best to honor God and our family in the same way that you did.”

 

Daniel Yue, David's middle son

Physics major, Junior year, Harvard College

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(Video on Memorial Service 3)

 

Fond remembrances of David Yue from an older brother 12-28-2014

 

David was born in Michigan after my parents re-united in America after 8 yrs. of separation from Taiwan.  Our family immigrated to the United States in a Refugee Act of Chinese Nationals in the back of a US Congressional Bill in 1955.  David’s birth was a joyous occasion, that is why his middle name is Tuck-Chow (meaning in Chinese, Arrived in the States).  I was 10 ½ yrs old at the time.  My sister, Mary, and I watched him grow up in Midland, Michigan as any older siblings would.  David exhibited a knack for solving problems early on and demonstrated interests in engineering.  I remember Mr. Lufkin, our next door neighbor in Stockton Place, Palo Alto, had a ham radio/electronic shop in his garage which David expressed a lot of curiosity.  When he was a 1st grader, he was invited to explain to the 6th graders how a radio worked.  When the family moved to Brentwood, Calif., in the LA area, David was the youngest boy ever in the state of CA to get a HAM Radio General Operator License.  He even erected a tall antenna in our backyard after getting permission from the neighbors who had reservations that it would block their beautiful views of the hills of mid-town Los Angeles.  David was really good in piano playing and debate in high school.  He even had a rock band.

 

Because my sister Mary and I were 10-12 yrs older than David, we did not do things together with him as siblings normally would of similar age.  We had our separate activities, however, we were always proud of him as he broke new areas of achievements we could not have done.   David was more “Americanized “than we were.   I remember one Christmas as I was leaving in a taxi for the airport going back to college, David ran after me waving feverishly to say more goodbyes.  I knew then the love and bonding we had as brothers.   I missed him then, and I miss him so much now.

 

One day when David was at Harvard, perhaps at a difficult time in his studies and college life, we called each other and we talked about the Bible and spirituality.   At that time I was working at Texas Instruments at Houston Texas.  He asked me questions about the Bible vs. myths, and I explained to him my understanding of the Bible.  I prayed for him and for his spiritual growth.

 

From Harvard to Johns Hopkins medical school, David was driven and curious.  We are all very proud of his professional accomplishments at JHU, especially our father, Alfred Yue, the late professor emeritus of UCLA Engineering and Applied Science, who also passed away in Feb. of this year.  We watched David grow, excel and mature into father-hood from a distance of 3,000 miles away (West coast to East coast), with Nancy and 3 boys, nannies and “house church”.  We were so proud of him.  In many ways David followed our father’s footsteps.  During the last several years, David and I shared our views on science and faith, marveling at how the latest scientific discoveries are aligning with the truths in the Bible.  Even the night before he died, David gave a seminar on “Scriptures and our origins/does God exist?”  David became an avid defender of God in the scientific community.

 

We are so grateful that over the years we made  efforts to get together during Christmas’s and Thanksgivings as a family, to bond, to love and to celebrate as a family.  The Chang’s invited Grandpa Yue to Canada on a number of summers. Dad talked about those outings, Nova Scotia, New Foundland, etc. and relished those times.  Then, in Jan and Feb. of this year, we bonded together again in Calif. when our father was gravely ill.  As all the family gathered together to support Dad and each other, we witnessed the amazing spiritual transformation of our father as he testified to all his dramatic encounter with Jesus.  Afterward, he declared his belief and trust in Him100%, and shared that amazing story to all who visited him.  I saw tears roll down David’s face as the story was told.  Those were tears of  gratitude for his answered prayer, as much as it was for me.  To experience Dad’s spiritual rebirth unfold before our eyes was such a precious gift.  Together, we experienced the grace and peace of God in the midst of sorrow.    

 

Today, David’s sudden passing forces me to reflect upon death again.  It was shocking when I first got that fateful call from Nancy.  My heart cried out with her, and still does today.  However, my rational mind asks, “Did David surprise Dad by showing up early in heaven?”.  Or was this God’s plan for him because God’s timing is always perfect, even though we don’t understand it sometimes.  David lived an abundant life,  as a loving husband, a loving father, a caring brother, a loyal son, an accomplished professor and scientist, a follower of Jesus Christ and a defender of the faith.  We so much want David to be with us more, to contribute more, but God had called him home. It is our loss, but David’s gain.  My prayer is for Nancy, Michael, Daniel and Jonathan to find peace and comfort from their faith in God, and for God to protect their hearts in the days , months to come and continue to experience that amazing grace through our Lord Jesus Christ,  especially during difficult times. 

 

I love you and will always miss you David.  Till we meet again in heaven.

With love and in loving memory,

John Yue, older brother of David, 12-28-2014

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(video on Memorial Service 3)

 

 

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