Flying at Moffett (NUQ) with POTUS, Dad and Navy

My father and I at Moffett Field in 1987, 

getting ready for the only civil aviation flight I took with him.

Sometimes a single photograph in our lives will remind us of a tale about a day that had a sweetness to it. Glancing through an album in recent days, I came across the picture (above) taken on the only day I ever flew in a plane in which my father was the pilot. 

Rediscovering a Chinese-American Success Story: The Legacy of Thomas Foon Chew of Bay Side Cannery

Bay Side canned its products under at least seven different labels, something new we've learned since publication of Historic Bay Area Visionaries last October. 

At left, a portrait of a young Thomas Foon Chew who became a millionaire with his Bay Side Canning Company

When I published Historic Bay Area Visionaries (History Press 2018) last fall, I included a chapter about Thomas Foon Chew, whose story was well known during the early 20th century in the San Francisco Bay Area, but had almost been lost by the time I published my book. Historians new about it, most of the general public did not.

Since the book's publication, I've enjoying following the trail of new information relating to this improbable Chinese-American success story. Foon came to American from China at the age of 8 in 1897. A few years later, with his father, Sai Yen Chew, he founded Bay Side Canning Company, and became a multi-millionaire.