The Wah Yan College Alumni (US Eastern) was founded in New York City in January 1991.  The founding members are Howard Chan (HK62), Gabriel Lee (HK63), Geoffrey K. Leung (HK54), Patrick W. Leung (HK 59), Michael Ma (HK62), Wilson W.S. Shum (HK52), Leo T.W. Wan (HK72) and Larry H. Woo (HK56).  At that time each founding member contributed a hundred dollars as an initiation fee.  The first major gathering of the Chapter was in December 1992 when Fr. Deignan visited the Big Apple.  Starting with less than a dozen members the U. S. Eastern Chapter has since grown to over 60 members.  The membership includes Wah Yan alumni from both Colleges in Hong Kong and Kowloon.  Our members come from various graduation classes, spanning class years from as early as the 1930's to as recent as 1995.  With the help of Lau Man-Wai, the Chapter was granted tax-exempt status by the US IRS in December 1993.  In December 1995, the Chapter celebrated its 5th anniversary at the home of Wilson Shum.  Now the Chapter has a new home in cyberspace, a Web site sponsored by James Wong. We are lucky to have Mr. Geoffrey Leung, first as our Hon. Secretary, then as Hon. Treasurer and now assumed the title of Chapter Historian.  He has shared with us many of his fond and interesting memories of Wah Yan dating from his student days and later as a lab assistant in the school.  It is interesting to know that he got his job at the Hang Seng Bank in New York because of the name Wah Yan in his resume.  The resume got the attention of Mr. Patrick Leung, a graduate of '59 HK, who was more than delighted to hire a fellow alumnus. Our Chapter generally meets about once every three months.  Besides dinner and dance parties we have also organized picnics, a trip to Toronto with a dinner meeting with the Toronto Chapter, a free trip to the Foxwood Casino arranged by Howard Chan, and outings to the Pocono Mountains.  We had guest speakers at some of our dinner meetings.  Our overseas guests included Mr. Philip Ching and Mr. Luke Wong. In April 1993 we were proud to host in New York the student ambassadors from Wah Yan Hong Kong and Kowloon.  Our members were excited and delighted to entertain and meet with these two bright young men who brought with them the latest news and greetings from our alma mater.  We also had sent delegates to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Wah Yan Alumni International Conference.  The next Conference will be held in Edmonton, Canada in the summer of 1998.  We are planning to organize a delegation to attend the International Conference.

Geoffrey Leung, Chapter Historian December 1997