Teacher Feature- Mr. Yip

Written May 2018

Frank Yip is great… but not JUST great. And as easy as it seems, Mr. Yip isn’t someone that can be summed up in a bland adjective. He has a story, like we all do, but to explain his story, we must start before Mr. Frank Yip was born. We’ll start with William Tow. 

William Tow came to America as a young boy in the early twentieth century, and he eventually became a citizen of the United States. When he was old enough, Tow went back to Hong Kong, China and got married. Before the couple’s first daughter was born, Tow once again went back to the United States and assisted his family- still in China- through means of financial backing and support. 

When World War II began, Tow was unable to get them to the United States, which led to his decision to return to China after the war. Their second daughter was on the way and Tow knew that he would have to return to the United States before she was born.  He worked hard on getting his family over to the United States along with him. However, their firstborn daughter, Lily, got married and began having children. When Tow finally had his wife and second-born daughter approved to come to the United States, Lily and her own family were unapproved due to fact that her children were so young. Lily and her family were in Hong Kong, hoping to get to this country while Tow was working on the other end to try his best to make it happen.

Now, on an entirely related note, Tow managed a restaurant known as the Ming Garden. It happened to be the top Chinese dining in the state of Rhode Island. Everybody went there. 

In 1962, while Tow was becoming increasingly frustrated and began to lose hope of bringing Lily to the U.S., one of his regular customers had noticed that Tow looked rather upset. When asked what was wrong, he explained that he couldn’t get his daughter and her family to this country. The man told Tow he would see if he could help; his college roommate might be able to do something. 

As Tow walked into work that day, he had no idea how his sad expression would permanently affect his life.

It turned out that particular roommate of one of his customers was Robert Kennedy, who was then the U.S. Attorney General. Through his contact, Robert Kennedy was able to clear all of the blockades for Lily. Later that year, Tow’s daughter, husband, and her children, including one particular Mr. Frank Yip, were able to immigrate into this country. 

“What are the odds? If my grandfather (William Tow) hadn’t looked so down that day and that man hadn’t recognized it, I may never be here- and neither would my siblings,” Yip explains. 

As incredibly interesting as this story is alone, it puts into a firsthand perspective the details of immigration. Mr. Yip’s family, since they’ve come to America, has greatly contributed to the U.S. military through their participation in it as well as the engineering behind it. Yip himself has worked as a teacher for many years, shaping future generations into their most educated selves. Yip points out: “If I weren’t here, there would be a ‘real American’ sitting here right now. If my siblings weren’t here, their jobs would be filled by ‘real Americans.’” 

Mr. Yip’s older brother served in the navy and has two sons. His sister worked as a chemical engineer and started up her own company with her friend, making her an entrepreneur whose had the responsibility of supplying many jobs. His other brother is a mechanical engineer who helps make US defense airplanes.

Mr. Yip’s family has surely proved themselves “worthy” of American citizenship, as have many immigrant families of the twentieth century and beyond. “The question is simple,” Mr. Yip says. “Is America better off with us or without us?”