Cultural Historian Awards

George Ow, Jr. and Gerrye Wong received Cultural Historian Awards at CHCP’s Tenth Anniversary in 1997.

Gerrye Kee Wong is a person well known and beloved by the greater Chinese community of the South Bay for promoting Chinese American history and sharing it with the local community. A fourth generation Chinese American, ABC, she is married to Calvin Wong, a retired Oakland business man. Gerrye is the mother of two: a son, Michael and a daughter, Kelly; she is also the grandmother of five wonderful grandchildren. Her father, Bill Kee, the manager of the National Dollar Stores in San Jose for 10 years in the 1940s was an active apokesman in the Chinese community of that era. He was also one of the first Chinese to join the San Jose Rotary Club and the Shriners.

Gerrye graduated from Oakland High School. She received her A.A. degree from U.C. Berkeley and her B.A. in Education from the University of Michigan. She retired as a San Jose elementary school teacher in 1987 with over 30 years of service.

A columnist for over 20 years, diligently recording and promoting the social and cultural activities of the Chinese community in the Bay Area, Gerrye wrote a monthly column for the Chinatown News Magazine published in Vancouver, Canada for two decades and presently writes the “On the Scene” column for Asian Week. She was the editor of the AAMA News, the newsletter of the Asian American Manufacturers Association from 1993-1995. In addition, Gerrye authored Eternal Spring which was published in 1996 to commemorate the thirtith anniversary of Self-Help for the Elderly.

Gerrye has served as former Secretary of State March Fong Eu’s Special Assistant in Northern California. She received the Outstanding Asian American Award from the Asian American Democratic Party of Northern California and the Volunteerism Award from the Organization of Chinese Americans. She also was a founder and past president of Chi-Am Circle, an Asian American Women’s Club in Santa Clara County; founding co-chairperson of the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project; co-chair of the 1997 Miss Chinatown USA Fashion Show; chairperson for the capital building fund for the Chinese Historical Society of America, which recently raised over $350,000 towards the establishment of a museum of Chinese American history in the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Gerrye has served on the Board of Directors of the Chinese Culture Foundation of San Francisco, Asian Business League of Silicon Valley, Chinese Performing Artists of San Jose, Organization of Chinese Americans of Silicon Valley, and Self-Help for the Elderly of Santa Clara County.

She is not just involved in community affairs, but she is very involved with her family as well. She received the Model Mother of the Year award in 1996 from the Chinese Women’s Association of America.