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Alice Fong Yu (1905 - )

The president of San Francisco State Teachers’ College told Alice Fong when she applied for admission in 1921: "No one is going to hire you when you graduate, so why study to be a teacher." Alice flared up. "I’m going to China to help my people!" With this defiance, Alice gave 44 years to the San Francisco Unified School District.

Alice is avant-garde among Chinese American women. Upon arrival in San Francisco from Vallejo for college, she joined the Chinese Congregational Church as a Sunday school teacher. In 1924 with six church friends, they started the Square and Circle Club, which raised money for flood victims in Canton, as well as financed scholarships and camperships for youths in the Laguna Honda Home. In 1932, when the Chinatown YWCA opened a residence for girls, Alice became the first home mother. In 1933 Alice collaborated with others to launch the Lake Tahoe Chinese Christian Youth Conference for church youths on the West Coast. She was president for the board of Mei Lun Yuen, a foster home for Chinese babies. During World War II she gave leadership to projects to raise money for the Rice Bow parties to support war orphans and disabled soldiers in China. In 1979 The Examiner honored Alice as one of the Most Distinguished Ten of the Bay Area.

Alice taught at Commodore Stockton School from 1926 to 1957. She became a speech therapist for the district until she retired in 1970. She excelled as a teacher and was a mentor to her students and a role model to many Chinese women. Even as a full time teacher, a wife and mother of two sons, Alice gave commendably to her community. Alice may well be the most outstanding Chinese American professional woman with a social conscience in the United States.