My Immigration Story

By Yu-Chi Larry Ho, 1010 Waltham St, Lexington, MA 02421 

ho@seas.harvard.edu, 781-862-6331

In 1949 I was fifteen years old, finishing my last year of high school in Hongkong, and China was in the middle of her civil war crisis. At that time, I began to show some aptitude for science and mathematics and heard about a school named MIT in the US. I, on my own, decided to apply for admission there. To everyone’s surprise, including myself, I was admitted. Thus, armed with the promise of an education and to live the American Dream, I came to the US on September 2nd 1950, at age of16 alone and friendless, to attend MIT. Four and half years later on 2/1955 I received my SB and SM degree from MIT. In the interim, I was lucky also to receive my Green Card as permanent resident due to the Refugee Relief Act of 1953 which was passed by Congress for East European refugees behind the Iron Curtain. But since China was under communist control, I also qualified and was able to by-pass the then miniscule quota of 105 immigrants of Chinese ethnicity per year from the entire globe to the US. Thus, by early 1955 I was educated, legally qualified to earn a living in the US, and began living my American Dream for the next 69 years (1955-2024).

I began work as an engineer at the Research Laboratory of the Bendix Aviation Corp in Detroit Michigan from 1955-1958 and was awarded four patents for my work in numerical control there and had my results published in the national magazine, LIFE. These credentials enabled me to gain admission for PhD study at Harvard which actually was my second choice (but that is another story, however a blessing in disguise).  Harvard actually had no competence in that area but at that time a complete revolution was taking place in my field – control theory. The undisputed father of the that revolution, Dr. Rudolf Kalman, at that time was an un known PhD engineer working in industry and Columbia University. With no particular person to guide me, I struck up a correspondence with Kalman and joint authored and collaborated several foundational work in that revolution with him, was able to continue my career at Harvard upon graduation, and gained the coveted permanent faculty status at Harvard in 1965. However, before that three lucky and lifechanging events also occurred in my life during the late 50s that deserve mention. First, because of my resident status, I  was drafted in late 1958 for military service. I had my physical and was told to report for duty in the US Army. However, at that time the Sputnik of USSR was launched as the first space vehicle in human history. The US attempt to catch up crashed and burned on the launching pad. The entire nation was in a panic for fear of losing the space race. My draft board in their infinite wisdom decided that aerospace guidance and control needed me more than the military service and returned me to graduate study. While at that time there was no hot war going on, military service for four years would consume a most productive period in my research career. Secondly, I met and married my wife in 1959 with whom we have been happily together for 65 years. She is beautiful, smart, and an equal partner in every sense for more than half a century in our life path together. Finally, again on my own initiative, I convinced Harvard to hire me after graduation in 1961, eventually gave me tenure in 1965, and where I retired in 2007 after 46 years. In fact, there was an amusing incident associated with my tenure process. Statistically only one in four junior faculty survives the tenure process at Harvard. It one did, then traditionally the dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences asks you to come in and be congratulated in a brief meeting for becoming the permanent faculty of the University. When my turn came in 1965, I was young (31 years old) and even younger looking. There were very few Chinese permanent members of the Harvard faculty at that time and almost none in the science departments. Thus, the first greeting of the dean to me was “what can he do for the Chinese Student club at Harvard?”. Of course, this awkward and embarrassing encounter was smoothed over as soon as the Dean realized his erroneous assumption but it does illustrate the environment for minorities in all phases of American life in the pre-civil rights time.

From 1965 onwards, my stories are mostly building an inclusive and diverse family, smooth sailing but hard work in three phases of my own career, and finally enjoyable and fruitful retirement as capstone of my living the American Dream. 

I have jokingly stated that I lived a very un-American life not in the usual pejorative sense of the word UNAMERICAN but as highly untypical. 

• Since finishing school in 1961, I had one job from which I retired in 2001, 
• I married one woman, and we are still happily married after 65 years, 
• I bought and lived in one house until retirement two years ago,
• I was the first client of my lawyer until he retired and now work with his junior partner,
• I started with one CPA to prepare my tax return in 1958 until his retirement at age 91 and now his son has taken over my account,
• I started with my insurance agent in 1958 till he retired. His son took over till he retired., Now the third generation handles my insurance needs,
•  All my children went to the same kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, and university.
• What started with one person in 1950 has grown to a family of 15 with four living generation in diverse ethnicities of Chinese, Korean, Iranian, Scottish. 

Here is a photo with all 15 of us in four living generations during Christmas 2023

And I did it my way!