Longtime Sunnysider and dedicated local volunteer Ming Louie passed away yesterday evening. He will be missed by by all who knew him, but the work he did on behalf of our local green spaces in Sunnyside will live on.

Ming had the terrible misfortune to be hit by a car on Monterey Boulevard in 2016, the first of a series of pedestrian/cyclist injuries and deaths that led to the street being designated a High Injury Corridor by the City. Read more about that here and here.

A remembrance of Ming by his friend Pat Moore:

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Remembering Ming Louie

By Pat Moore

Our family first met Ming when our condo association decided to hire someone to care for our grounds.  We put a notice on the Safeway bulletin board announcing the job opening, and Ming responded the next day.  We hired him immediately, and soon found him indispensable.  He improved the planted areas around the building, and was so friendly and likeable that he soon became friends with many people in the building.  This included my late husband, with whom Ming formed a close friendship.  They used to discuss sports, and Ming became a USC fan, as they watched Trojan baseball, basketball and football games together.  I’m not sure how much Ming understood American sports, but I could hear him and Gene cheering when the Trojans made a good play, or when they won!

Later, when I became the chair of the SNA greening committee, Ming was the first to enlist in this neighborhood improvement project.  He went with me each week to set up the work area, hauling tools that we got from the city agencies who worked with us.  We had gotten a grant for expenses and plant purchases, which was repaid by valuing the hours that volunteers worked, so a careful record was kept of the hours that each person worked.  When I turned in the accounting of these hours to the city at the end of the project, I found that Ming Loie had volunteered more hours than the rest of the volunteers combined!  Ming had done at least half the work that went into the newly created Circular Avenue Ribbon Garden.  After the Garden was dedicated (by then-new Mayor Lee) in 2011, Ming continued as a Seward in the Garden, keeping it cleaned, weeded and adding new plants. 

In the meantime, Ming had continued as our grounds-keeper until his health problems made that impossible, at which time his wife, Moi, took over.  Moi also became a close friend, and many of us in our building are mourning with Moi and son Joe today.  Ming will be so terribly missed.  

I like to have a fantasy that he and Gene are again discussing the fate of Trojan sports in this era of no sports.   Or perhaps another favorite topic – food – since Ming was a chef, and Gene loved any and all cuisines.  Whatever the topic, I’m glad they are once again having some lively discussions.