Person

Chang, Gan

• Chang, Yat Gan

1912-2005

CHANG Gan was born in 1912 in Vancouver’s Chinatown at 111 East Pender Street. He was the son of CHANG Toy, a prominent Chinese pioneer businessman who was also known as Sam Kee. His father had arrived in Canada in 1874.

Gan was well educated at a time when few Chinese attended university. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia in 1934; followed by a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree in 1938, also from UBC.

When WWII erupted, Gan enlisted and was accepted into the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942. He became a pilot officer and was trained as a bomb aimer. Before leaving for his post in Britain, he married Helen Lore of Victoria in 1943. By 1945, Gan was promoted to Flying Officer.

Two of his other brothers also served in the RCAF during the war.

When Gan returned from Europe, he worked for a time as an electrician at the Burrard Dry Dock. But being smart and ambitious, he decided to return to university and study dentistry. He graduated in 1949 from the University of Alberta and opened his own dental practice in the South Granville area of Vancouver.

Gan was active and was a member of the early Vancouver Chinese Tennis Club, and later the Vancouver Chinese Golf Club and the Arbutus Club.

He and his wife, Helen, had two children, both boys: Dwight and Blythe.

Gan’s C.I.45 was issued in 1939, about 15 years later than most other C.I.45s had been issued.

Gan passed away in Vancouver in 2005.

Lore, Helen Hing Yee (1919-2006)

Description supplied by collector/curator