Sue Fong Eng Lee
Sue Fong Eng Lee
October 8, 1949 – May 27, 2026
Sue Fong Eng Lee was born in 1949 in the village of 大群洞 Dai Kwun Ong, Toisan, China, and fled to Hong Kong with her mother and sister a month later. She came to America at eight, clutching a tiny purse and a photograph of a father she had never met. She arrived at JFK airport in New York, fell asleep on a bench, and was woken by a sun-weathered man. She pulled out the photograph, looked up, and asked: "Are you my father?" He smiled and took her hand.
From that moment, she built a life of remarkable courage, purpose, and love with family at the center of everything she did. She grew up in Princeton Junction, New Jersey where her family farmed Chinese vegetables and she learned English, a devoted and dutiful daughter who never forgot the sacrifices that made her life possible. At twenty, she met the love of her life, Chun Fu, in Chinatown, and last year they celebrated fifty years of marriage. Together they built a family she cherished above all else.
She earned her accounting degree from American University in Washington, D.C., and went on to a distinguished career, first at Peat, Marwick, Mitchell (now KPMG), and then as Executive Director of Chinatown Manpower Project, where she dedicated herself to helping newly arrived immigrants build new lives and later supported the City of New York’s Small Business Services (SBS). She was proudly a product of her community, and gave back to it for decades.
In retirement, she poured that same energy into the people she loved most. She was a dedicated and present grandmother, and a beloved fixture at her local senior center, where she organized parties, planned field trips, and taught English to fellow seniors with the same quiet dedication she had brought to everything before it. New York City remained a constant joy, she loved taking in Broadway musicals and the arts, especially with her dear friend Hueymin.
She deeply enjoyed traveling the world with her children and her niece Nancy, from pretending to be a college student in Greece, to exploring the beautiful National Parks of the US (with her Senior Pass) to eating her way through Europe.
She was a devoted wife to Chun Fu, a loving mother to Chris, Frank, and Katrina and a cherished grandmother to Kyle and Sydney with another one on the way. She will be forever remembered for her love of community, her dedication, her generosity, her thriftiness, her humor, her stories, her spirit and most importantly, her love.
She lived to see her family flourish across generations, and considered that her greatest achievement of all. She is survived by her husband, Chun Fu, her children Christopher (Jill), Frank (Hyunah), Katrina (Gary) and her grandchildren Kyle and Sydney, with another little one on the way.