Welcome to What We Remember, our reader-submitted obituary series. Submit your story for next Sunday’s installment here.
Jiunn Shang Yu, 89
Born a Japanese colonial subject, then a ragged World War II toddler who hid from American bombers, and ate rats and bugs in the mountains, my dad grew up to study radars.
He came to the United States in 1960 to become an electrical engineer, eventually helping build communications systems for the U.S. military. He learned English, took classes all day and mopped labs all night.
An advocate of civil rights, Dad gazed down the barrel of a gun held by a young Black man in 1964 and talked him into peacefully leaving our apartment in Ohio. The young man was threatening to rob us. Dad said, “Look at me, please. I am not your enemy.”
A student of the Civil War and the Cultural Revolution, he held full faith in the American vision for a democracy of laws. Life is beautiful, he said.
In May, Dad climbed on to Guanyin’s spaceship — and now rides in the infinite with the Goddess of Mercy at his side.
Jiunn Shang Yu, a physicist and electrical engineer, died May 14, 2026, in Taichung, Taiwan. – By his daughter Pei-Lin Yu
Theresa Clay Ridgley Johnson, 84
My mom was a true Washingtonian. She was born in D.C. and attended the now-closed St. Patrick’s Academy. This was fitting with her March 17 birthday and Irish heritage.
A lifelong government employee, she moved to Los Angeles in 1983. While living on the opposite coast, she never forgot the city that was her true home. She drove around L.A. with a Washington “Redskins” license-plate holder and helmet magnet on her car, proudly showing her hometown.
She was so happy to come back to the D.C. area in 2004 to live the rest of her years. My mom was lucky to be able to travel all over the world, but D.C. was always her hometown.
Theresa Clay Ridgley Johnson, a government secretary, died April 30, 2026, in Martinsburg, West Virginia. – By her daughter Angie Marella
Tyler Abell, 94
When my father, Tyler Abell, looked at Montgomery County’s cookie-cutter developments of the 1970s and 1980s, he lamented the destruction of large swaths of forest and native species.
An avid horseman and lover of nature, he thought, “There has to be a better way!” Working with the Montgomery County Council, and tapping his considerable perseverance and determination, he succeeded over the course of a decade in getting zoning laws amended. It allowed for a new model of property development that builds clustered homes to preserve significant shared land for trails and natural habitat.
His development at Merry-Go-Round Farm, an equestrian community with ample space for horseback riders to keep their horses and enjoy riding in the natural beauty of their surroundings, stands as an exemplar of this approach and changed the paradigm for developments in Potomac.
Tyler Abell, a lawyer and real estate developer, died Sept. 19, 2026, in Potomac, Maryland. – By his son Dan T. Abell
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The Post is publishing reader-submitted obituaries as part of a weekly feature, What We Remember.
The post A student of revolution who ate bugs and rats during WWII and other lives lost appeared first on Washington Post.
