At Funeral, Roses for Wang

Over 100 students and members of the Harvard community entered Memorial Church to the strains of organ music to commemorate Hui Wang ’08 yesterday afternoon.

A funeral service for Wang, an Eliot House resident who died in a car crash in New York on Oct. 7, was held Tuesday in Boston’s Chinatown. Wang, 22, was a member of the Outing Club and the Harvard Table Tennis Club, and a longtime volunteer with PBHA’s Chinatown ESL program.

Wang’s friends and family—including his parents, who arrived from Guangzhou, China, on Saturday—processed into Memorial Church holding white roses. The roses were added to an arrangement next to a smiling picture of Wang.

Speakers emphasized Wang’s good humor, empathy for friends, and dedication to science and photography.

Eliot House Co-Master Lino Pertile recalled meeting Wang and being struck by his enthusiastic manner and “infectious” smile.

“Fathers and teachers should not live long enough to speak at their children’s or students’ services,” he said. “And when they do, they don’t know what to say.”

Fellow in Center for Genomics and Proteomics Christine Queitsch, leader of a laboratory where Wang worked, spoke of him as “an exceptionally gifted young scientist.”

“In fact,” she noted, “his thesis proposal just got approved two weeks ago.”

After a song by C-Sharp, Harvard’s Asian a capella group, two of his friends related memories of Wang.

Yiming Wang ’08 met the biochemical sciences concentrator for the first time freshman year. The two became roommates and lab partners sophomore year.

He described Wang as “at once a classmate, a brother, and a friend.”

Elise Ng ’07, who other students said was dating Wang, gave an emotional tribute to him, recalling his love of nature.

“He had a great wonder about the world and always used to think about ways to make it a better place,” she said. “He must have had a thousand pictures in his computer of scenes outside.”

She closed her remarks with the wish that Wang is “enjoying the foliage outside, and will rest in peace.”