In 1963 Peter Lin left his homeland of Taiwan for the U.S. with two suitcases and 200 US dollars in his pocket (that been given to him by his uncle). He went to the University of Kentucky for a year then he transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he earned a PhD in Agricultural Economics in 1968. He went on to teach as an assistant professor at the University of Montana and the University of Alaska.
Peter met his wife Mei-ling in 1969 and they got married in 1970. After his eldest daughter, Felicia was born in Alaska, the family of three immigrated to Ottawa, Canada, where Peter worked at Statistics Canada for over 20 years. His second daughter, Petrina was born a few years after immigrating to Canada.
He was an active member of the Taiwanese Canadian community, served as the president of the Taiwanese Canadian Professors and Professionals Association, and a strong supporter of self-determination and independence for Taiwan.
Peter had always loved teaching so he later began teaching Economics part-time at Algonquin College, while still at Statistics Canada. In 1994 he taught as a visiting professor at Ching Hsing University in Taiwan. Then he decided to take early retirement from Statistics Canada in 1995, in order take on a position as a Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute of Economics at National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
While in Taiwan he not only returned to teaching as a university professor, but made a number of meaningful contributions. From 1999-2000 he served as the president of the Friends of A-bian in the Northern District of Kaohsiung City. This organization raised funds for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Chen Shui-bian’s presidential election campaign. In March of 2000, Chen Shui-bian was elected president in Taiwan. It was a historic moment since the DPP had been founded in 1986 during Taiwan’s martial law, an era in which the formation of opposition parties was outlawed under the authoritarian one-party rule of the Kuomintang. The election of Chen Shui-bian was the first time there had ever been a transition of power since the Kuomintang had transplanted itself in Taiwan in 1947.
During his time in Taiwan, Peter also served as Director of the Board of the First Commercial Bank, Chunghwa Telecom and Chunghwa Investment Corporation. From 2001-2006 he began serving as a National Policy Advisor to President Chen Shui-bian. In 2001 he left the National Sun Yat-sen University to serve as Director of the Graduate Institute of Business & Management at Kaoyuan University. In 2004 he became the Dean of the College of Business & Management at Kaoyuan University. He officially retired in 2008 and returned to Canada. It was then that he began traveling the globe with his wife Meiling and later doting on his two grandchildren as a proud grandfather.
Peter suffered a traumatic head injury from a fall on October 15th and passed away on October 17th peacefully at the Civic hospital with family by his side, including his two beloved grandchildren Griffin and Caia.
The funeral service will be held in the Sacred Space on November 3, 2019 at 10 a.m. followed by a reception from 11am-1pm. In memoriam, donations may be made to Operation Eyesight (Suite 200 4 Parkdale Crescent NW Calgary, Alberta Canada T2N 3T8) https://operationeyesight.com/
A wonderful man.