Walter Patrick Tam's Obituary
Walter Patrick Tam was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 22, 1927. His father Hung En Tam and mother Betty Kin Yong Ching were also born in Honolulu in 1903. Walter’s mother and father were 16 years old when they married. They had 5 sons: Joe, Ernest, Albert, Walter, and Bobby.
Walter takes after his father with bushy eyebrows. His mom called him Ah Yen. Albert, Bobby, and Walter were a year apart, and shared a bedroom together, and the three had the same friends as children.
Walter as a child loved to read about doctors, engineers, and scientists. He dreamed of building bridges, tall buildings, and tunnels, and of flying a plane. As an adult, he became an aircraft instrument mechanic, and a computer programmer at the Alameda Naval Air Base until his retirement in 1982.
Walter learned to be thrifty from his young parents while enjoying playing and fighting with his brothers. Birthdays were celebrated with new clothes and the tooth fairy left a nickel for every lost tooth, despite the 1929 financial crash. Walter earned money by shining shoes, selling newspapers in the streets, and taking care of yards. And every penny he earned was banked.
Walter’s favorite toys were a pair of roller skates, his brother wore one skate and he the other. They made wooden rifles that shot rubber bands made out of tire tubes.
What other games did he play in Hawaii?
“We played a lot of football, baseball, marbles, tin-can alley, swimming, hiking, climbed coconut and mango trees, and played cowboys.” His mom played mahjong with them. She was very good at a speedy game of mahjong.
The boys didn’t dare argue about 8 p.m. bedtime, but they used a flashlight under the blanket and read comic books.
Was it rough growing up in Hawaii? He was bit by dogs three times, fell out of coconut and mango trees three times, and once fell into a pile of broken glass. A tree branch fell on him. A big wooden sliver lodged in his butt from sliding down a banister. He almost lost his toe and got hit by a car. Everywhere the family went, they walked or took the open street cable car.
Walter met Florence when he was 14. Walter’s family had moved to California after Pearl Harbor 1941. Walter and Florence’s fathers were friends and were renting the same three-story apartment building in Oakland Chinatown. He thought Florence was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. They didn't date though until his family moved back from Minnesota after the war. He sold his car and bought Florence a wedding ring.
Walter and Florence always lived at Vallecito Place since shortly living in the back of Walter’s father’s shoe store in SF. They had five children, Patricia, Beatrice, David, Lawrence, and Edward; three grandchildren, Kevin, Henry, Nina; and three great-grandchildren, Nathan, Allison, Micah.
Walter was a dedicated member of the Chinese Presbyterian Church in Oakland Chinatown. He attended Sunday services regularly for many decades, volunteering as an Elder, deacon, trustee, and teaching English to immigrants from Hong Kong and Vietnam.
His advice to his children, “Don’t take yourself or the world too seriously, Relax, learn to have fun. Do something that gives you pleasure. But never shirk your responsibility to yourself and others.”
He will be deeply missed by his wife, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, brother Bobby, and all his nieces and nephews.
o The family of Walter Tam deeply appreciate your prayers, sympathy, and support. Thank you for your participation in Mr. Tam’s Celebration of Life Service.
o In lieu of flowers, gifts “in Memory of Walter Tam” may be made to Chinese Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 265 – 8th Street, Oakland, CA 94607
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