Alexander Shui-Sun Mar: How He Left His Mark

September 7, 2019
This date nine years ago marked the tragic day in which the irreplaceable Mr. Mar passed away. This biography has been composed by a group of high school students in honor of him and his exceptional contributions to local communities.

"There is no rich benefactor who provides us with an endowment to operate the school. There is no sympathetic rich banker who provides us with an interest free loan to help us through hard times. There are only Fellowship members who tirelessly contribute whatever time and money they can afford to help this school." These wise words spoken by Mr. Mar demonstrate his beliefs on how the community can improve its Chinese school and depict his own dedication to the school.

Mr. Mar was born in Hong Kong. At the age of eleven, he moved to the U.S, growing up to attend UC Berkeley, where he majored in computer science and engineering. Despite his parents being strongly against him going to college (they wanted him to be in the restaurant business), he worked incredibly hard to prove them wrong and achieve his dream. His first career was at a nuclear power plant, but due to the decline of nuclear business, he chose an alternative: computer science. He ended up working at Evergreen State College for 21 years. But aside from his tremendous contributions to the college, he was also incredibly engaged in local communities.

Since the establishment of the Olympia Area Chinese Fellowship in 1980 and Olympia Chinese School in 1982, many volunteers have stood up to help support the organization. Mr. Mar was among them, holding the record for most positions served on the Board and as the school principal (see Table 1) within the 40 years that the Fellowship has been thriving thus far.

But what would drive someone to consistently dedicate so much of their energy towards assisting the community? In 2006, Mr. Mar composed two descriptive summaries, one about Chinese-Americans in the United States and another specifically about the Chinese school in Olympia. His in-depth understanding of the history behind these two topics played a major role in motivating himself to serve the OACA (then known as the OACF) Board and as an Olympia Chinese School official for a total of 18 plus years, as well as to help the Chinese-Americans in the area with adapting to the new environment.

Terms	Positions
1984 - 1986	Vice Principal (Chinese School)
1988 - 1990	English Secretary
1990 - 1992	Vice President of Education
1994 - 1996	President
1998 - 1999	Interim Secretary
2000 - 2001	Vice President - Administration

Table 1. Mr. Mar’s roles over the years

Despite many hardships, Mr. Mar was able to maintain and expand the Olympia Chinese School as the Vice Principal. He desired for more people to learn the Chinese language and about Chinese culture and was driven by his belief that “this world … is moving toward global interdependence and global competition … The European-centrically narrow perspective of the world is no longer sufficient. The teachers of this Chinese School of Olympia will contribute our part to enable our students to survive well in a world of spaceship Earth.” In an attempt to increase the interest of high schoolers in joining the Chinese school, he went forth and directly contacted the school districts of Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater, which led to the creation of an extremely successful high school foreign language credit program in 1986. Unfortunately, after his term ended that year, this program was left unrenewed by the subsequent principals due to certain issues. Then, in 1990, Mr. Mar was elected as the Vice President of Education, where he once again contacted the local high schools along with staff from the WA Office of Superintendent of Instruction, where he learned about WAC 180-50-300, a law which permitted non-school district employed organizations to grant foreign language credits for high school. Having gained this new knowledge, he constructed another flourishing high school foreign language program within the Olympia Chinese School. And for the first time, he compiled a full student list electronically and created electronic forms tracking incomes and expenses, as well as others.

After interviewing Mrs. Wendy Seid (one of the initial board members who has served many terms) and Mrs. Bea Tien (founder of Chinese School and former board member) who both have worked with Mr. Mar, it is evident that education, specifically relating to Chinese culture, was undoubtedly one of Mr. Mar’s core values. He devoted money and countless hours of his time towards the association in order to increase the exposure of children to traditions in many ways, such as creating classes for Chinese instruments (GuZheng, ErHu, etc.), calligraphy, Taiji, and more. He pushed everyone, including himself, to either learn or to help others learn about Chinese culture. He did this through things such as taking his children to Seattle every weekend to learn Chinese and hosting summer camps at the Evergreen State College to teach students about Chinese Dance, Kungfu, etc. Additionally, he organized many additional activities such as field trips to Wild Waves, Ellensburg, and Leavenworth. Aside from strongly valuing education, being self-motivated, and being willing to help others, Mr. Mar was a very responsible person who took his work seriously. In a letter (see Figure 1) he wrote (regarding his upcoming vacation) as board president to his treasurer, Ron Locke, in 1995, he specifically mentioned important tasks that needed to be done in his absence. He additionally included the steps required to accomplish such jobs which also displays his attention to detail.

Most importantly, Mr. Mar had the kindest personality. He always said yes to others’ requests and was very supportive of everyone. He was willing to do anything he could to be involved and was incredibly enthusiastic, passionate, and dedicated to the work that he did. He was warm-hearted (熱心), capable (能力強), forgiving (心胸寬闊), and a real gentleman.

Overall, Mr. Mar sacrificed a great amount of his time in efforts to better the Chinese community in Olympia area. He has left a lasting legacy upon the history of the Chinese school, one that everyone should look up to.

Figure 1. A letter to his treasurer Ron Locke


Figure 2. Photo from OACF Newsletter


Figure 3. Mr. Mar and his wife Mrs. Barbara Chin
Words Pictured：風遠播香遍十方 - The wind can spread incense far far away

This article was composed by Erik Ma, William Yu, and Jamie Cherrett.
August 15th, 2019

Words from Erik Ma:
For the past few months, I have led a project to write a biography for a very notable Washingtonian, Alexander Shui-Sun Mar. He was someone that was heavily involved in the local community through spreading Chinese culture and left a lasting legacy inside Olympia (where he lived).

Although not incredibly well known, I truly believe that his story is worth remembering and sharing with a larger audience. He was genuinely an inspiring person with a huge, respectable passion for civic engagement, which is why I felt the need to be civically engaged as well through composing this biography for others to enjoy. Additionally, as I am currently participating in Pathway Foundation’s Mayoral Internship (that teaches the values of civic engagement to high school students), I strongly felt that this project was worth my time and efforts (building a team, researching, and interviewing) as it is a golden opportunity to encourage others to be more active in society.