I'm sorry if this is not the place for this, but I am trying to bring closure to my grief. I do not even know why this has hit me so hard, as Kwan was more of a work/casual friend.
My friend, Kwan Kwok, passed away around Thanksgiving. Evidently he left Dallas, in a twin engine plane that he had just purchased, heading for Delaware. He had not informed anyone of his flight plans and was reported missing after Thanksgiving. His plane was found a few days after that in West Virginia. At least that is the way I understood the story. Kwan was 52 years old.
We met Kwan when he was a 18 year old student at M.I.T. He told me he had come, with his family, to New York when he was 14 years old... he learned to speak English, graduated from high school at 16, and was accepted at M.I.T. We became friends and that lasted through his receiving his Master's and Doctorate. We left M.I.T and moved from N.H. to Plymouth, MA. Kwan came down to see us there a couple times...he taught my daughter, who was then 10 -12 years old, how to make origami swans and little gift boxes, and showed me new guitar riffs. One time he showed up after another friend of mine had brought a dozen lobsters. We cooked them up and Kwan, who was not a large man, ate 6 of them.
I think I last talked to Kwan about 12 years ago, when he promised to take me up in his new plane. It never happened. We moved to Florida and lost track of each other.
Rest In Peace, my friend.
