Kam Lung Tam's Obituary
Kam Kung Tam 譚錦龍 was born on December 22nd, 1934 in Kaiping, Guangdong, China to Yao Tam and Yu Ho Chan. He passed away of natural causes in Oakland, California on November 25th, 2019 at the age of 84.
Kam Lung Tam was the only son of three children born to a landowner family in China. His grandfather purchased farmland with the money he had amassed from doing business in America. His father passed away when he was 8 years old. After the Sino-Japanese War and the Communist take-over, his family lost their land and he was forced to leave China to find work in Hong Kong at the age of 16 to earn money to help his mother and sisters. He became an apprentice shoemaker in the 1950's and later a cobbler and a shoe salesman in Hong Kong. He married Wai Yue Ng, a seamstress in 1964 and had two children John Tat Sing Tam and Terri Lai Yung Tam.
Kam Lung Tam immigrated to Brooklyn, New York in 1972 and worked in a laundry processing plant for several years before moving to Manhattan, New York to learn to cook Chinese food. He worked his way up from prep cook to head chef. He worked in the restaurant business from coast-to-coast for over 30 years and he moved his family from New York City to Columbus, Ohio in 1979 and then to Los Angeles, California before settling in Oakland, California in 1983. He is survived by his wife Wai Yue Tam, his son John Tat Sing Tam, daughter Terri Seto, son-in-law John Seto, and five grandchildren – Ryan, Alex, Kristi, Matthew, and Justin.
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