Obituary for Vivienne (Yuen-Fong V. Lo) “Viv” Marsh
Yuen-Fong Vivienne Marsh of Lafayette CO passed away June 19th, 2017 at the age of 67.
Vivienne was preceded in death by her parents Po-Yiu and Sui-Ha Lo. She is survived by Jeff Marsh, her husband of 39 years, and sisters and brothers: May Chann of Richmond BC, Joan Choy of Coquitlam BC, Alan Lo of San Marino CA, and Patrick Lo of Stockton CA.
Her sudden passing was due to the rapid recurrence of gall bladder cancer which had been in remission since its detection a year ago. She went peaceably at her home in Lafayette under hospice care. All her brothers and sisters flew in for a private viewing prior to the cremation.
“Viv” was born in Hong Kong, where she went to grade school and high school and then soon after moved to the United States to go to college. She met her husband-to-be, Jeff Marsh, during her graduate program study at the University of California at Berkeley where she achieved her MS in 1977. She married Jeff in Anaheim CA that same year.
Viv had a long and productive career as a research scientist focused on drug discovery for combating cancer, for inhibiting viruses and for mitigating inflammation. She had many good friends among her coworkers at Syntex, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Amgen, Source Pharmaceuticals and Array BioPharma. Viv was a co-author on over 25 scientific publications and several technical conference presentations.
The two great avocations of Viv’s life were travel and cooking. Following the completion of her high school degree, Viv’s father sent her on a European sightseeing tour. From then on, Viv made it a point to take several trips every year. Sometimes she travelled on her own, sometimes she added sightseeing to a business trip, and most often, she journeyed with Jeff at her side to explore the world.
In her mother’s kitchen in Hong Kong, Viv learned the art of preparing Chinese cuisine. She developed a curiosity about the cuisines of different cultures and would always find and buy the local cookbooks wherever she travelled. Her interests led her to take a series of cooking classes in the San Francisco Bay Area which in turn led her to study with a professional chef, Martin Yan. Over the years, Viv took vacations from her work as a biochemist to assist him with several cooking shows and to help develop some of his cookbooks.
After retiring in 2013, Viv found yet another avocation – she volunteered in the community taking on a weekly position tutoring schoolchildren at the local library.
Although Viv had no children of her own, she loved and delighted in her twelve nieces and nephews (Calvin Chann, Edwin Chann, Eugene Choy, Alison [Choy] Ramsay, Marcus Lo, Wenyee [Lo] Marr, Joyee [Lo] Koffler, Kenneth Lo, Jeffrey Lo, Philip Lo, Jesse Marsh and Nate Marsh) and her seven grand-nieces and grand-nephews (Sophie Chann, Owen Chann, Hayden Choy, Isla Choy, Marcus Ramsay, Ashlyn Ramsay, and, Penny Marr). Viv was godmother to several of these and to her friends’ twins, Colin Yan and Devin Yan.
From early in their married life, Jeff and Viv’s home always included their four-footed companions. Vivienne cared for and loved her big black loud rambunctious rowdy dogs. Her sentiment matched the quote, “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.”
Vivienne will be remembered by her friends and family for her smile, her friendship, her love, her warmth, her intelligence and her generosity. She will also be remembered for her courage. Viv was a long-term survivor (over 40 years) of a very rare disease called PNH and was a role model for others with that disease on how to live a full life while managing the aspects and challenges of PNH.
In lieu of flowers please consider a donation honoring Vivienne to either the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) https://rarediseases.org/ or the Aplastic Anemia and MDS International Foundation (AAMDS) http://www.aamds.org/.
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