AP Wang, 37 Year City Resident, Passes Away at 91

FALLS CHURCH TIMES STAFF
February 4, 2013

An Pang  “AP” Wang passed away on January  31, 2013 in Falls Church, VA.  He was 91 years old.

AP was born in 1922 in Beijing, China, educated at the Jesuit Prep School in Tianjin, China and went on to graduate from Saint John’s University in Shanghai, China.  He earned his Masters of Business Administration from New York University in 1948.

After he gained his graduate degree Mr. Wang could not return to China because of the on-going Chinese Civil War (1945-1949) and his father’s serving as a general in Manchuria, so he remained in the U.S.   AP was recruited by and joined the Voice of America where he worked for 34 years throughout the Cold War in the Chinese Branch and retired as the Editor of the Mandarin Chinese Bureau.  He maintained an active interest in international affairs throughout his life.

AP Wang

He was a lifetime member of the Falls Church Village Preservation and Improvement Society and a charter member of the Victorian Society at Falls Church, VA, where he enjoyed participating in Falls Church living history events.  He was a gifted lifelong tennis player and continued the sport until he was well past 80 years old.  He was also an avid reader in the field of government and world affairs.  AP loved world travel, visiting Scandinavia seven times.  After President Nixon’s opening of relations with China he was able to visit his birth place in 1978 for the first time since he had departed China for the U.S. for graduate school.

He is survived by his wife of 37 years Midge H. Wang; sisters Maci Chang of Hong Kong and Helen Preston of San Antonio, TX; nieces Mai Barrett in New Canaan, CT and Gloria Wang and Linda Chang of Hong Kong; and great-niece Anne Catherine Barrett, of Springfield, VA; nephew Ming Hua Wang of Los Angeles; nephew Loon Hua Wang of Houston Texas; step-son Gus Knapp and his wife Terry Hooper of Falls Church and step-son Michael Knapp and his wife Amy and their daughters Ellen and Emma Knapp of McLean, VA.

A memorial service and interment will be held in the spring.