Echopedia

Dr. Bob Cheng (鄭寶鼎博士)

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Dr. Bob Cheng (鄭寶鼎博士)

Identity Snapshot

  • English: Dr. Bob Cheng
  • Chinese: 鄭寶鼎博士
  • Era: 1940-2020
  • Geography: Tainan, Taiwan
  • Core roles: engineer, entrepreneur, philanthropist
  • Source: TAH Foundation Who’s Who

Dr. Bob Cheng (鄭寶鼎博士) was a Taiwanese American chemist, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and community leader, and the founder of the Taiwanese American History (T.A.H.) Archives Center in Irvine, California. He was born in Taiwan, where he earned his undergraduate degree from National Taiwan University, before emigrating to the United States to earn his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Syracuse University in 1969. He founded and built a successful electronics company, which provided the resources he would later devote to the Taiwanese American community.

Education

  • National Taiwan Univ. — 1959-1963 — B.S., Chemical Engineering
  • Syracuse Univ. — 1965-1969 — M.S. & Ph.D. Chem. Eng.

Employment

  • Colgate Palmolive — Researcher — (1969-1980) — FEMA Electronics — CEO — (1980-2020) — Community — Taiwanese American Archives / TaiwaneseAmericanHistory.org — Founder — TAA-NJ (台灣同鄉會紐澤西分會) — Co-founder and supporter — Taiwanese American Conference (台美族群研討會) — Founder and sponsor — Windsor Area Taiwanese American Association (溫莎區台美協會) — Founder and supporter

Career & Community

  • Science & business — Researcher, Colgate-Palmolive (1969–1980); founder and CEO, FEMA Electronics (1980–2020), the electronics company whose success funded his later philanthropy
  • Education — National Taiwan University B.S. Chemical Engineering (1959–1963); Syracuse University M.S. & Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (1965–1969)
  • Community legacy — Founder, Taiwanese American Archives / TaiwaneseAmericanHistory.org (T.A.H. Archives Center, Irvine, CA); co-founder and supporter, TAA-NJ 台灣同鄉會紐澤西分會; founder and sponsor, Taiwanese American Conference 台美族群研討會; founder and supporter, Windsor Area Taiwanese American Association 溫莎區台美協會
  • Memorial — Died 2020; commemorated in TAH encyclopedia [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories-749||#749 追思]] (追思, by 黃啟仁, 2020/09) and [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ota-300||#300]] (1940–2020); Who’s Who record at [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/whos-who-2293-dr-bob-cheng||#2293]]; portraits by artists Hsiu-Fang Susan Liu 陳秀芳 ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/footsteps-35||#35]]) and Dr. Chao-Min Liu 劉兆民 ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/footsteps-34||#34]])

Family

  • Wife: Jean
  • Son: Cliff, George

From the record

  • 複核（TJJ-A09251000-5, 2026-09-26）：本 slice 文章 9907500dda4f33bb（林宏容緬懷鄭寶鼎博士悼文） 正文再驗證——鄭寶鼎往生記述確認見於正文，subject 連結為真，無錯鏈、無虛鏈；對應日期事實條目（已掛該文 wikilink）已在庫 — SKIP，無新材料。

  • 複核（TJJ-A09230700-3, 2026-09-24）：本 slice 文章 林宏容緬懷鄭寶鼎博士稿 9907500dda4f33bb 正文再驗證——subject 連結為真實對應，無錯鏈、無虛鏈；對應日期事實（含該文 wikilink）2020-09-30 創辦人往生/史料中心/TACS 條目已在庫 — SKIP，無新材料。

  • 複核（TJJ-A09221200-5, 2026-09-23）：本 slice 文章 TJJ 9907500d 正文再驗證——subject link 為真實對應，對應日期事實條目已在庫，無錯鏈、無虛鏈 — SKIP，無新材料。

  • 複核（TJJ-A09220400-5, 2026-09-22）：subject link 經本 slice 再驗證為真實對應，对应 From-the-record 条目已在库（无错链、无虚链）— SKIP，无新材料。

  • 2020-09-30 — 林宏容’s memorial essay (written 9/27/2020) reports Cheng died the evening of 2020-09-20; it recounts how he funded and founded 台美史料中心 (T.A. Archives) — 獨資租下爾灣 17155 Von Karman Ave. (~4,000 sq ft) in 2014-02, then 獨資買下爾灣 Corporate Park 兩層樓現址 (~19,000 sq ft) in 2016-07 — and that he and his wife anonymously donated nearly the entire 柑縣 TACS 台美人社區獎學金 for its full 10-year run (2005–2014), with the 2014 award ceremony held at the Archives; the first 籌備會議 (2010, at 陳立明’s home) was convened by 林宏容 at Cheng’s request (林宏容 via TJJ, 2020-09-30).

Sources

Vault re-check 2026-09-11 (deepen-x slice 17, vault-only)

All wikilink targets verified to exist in the vault; all cited-source facts (NTU/Syracuse, Colgate-Palmolive, FEMA Electronics, TAA-NJ, TAH Archives, memorials 300, portraits 34) already absorbed. No web used, no new pages created, nothing published.

Vault re-check 2026-09-14 (deepen-x slice 09140020-2, vault-only)

Multiple further vault records mention him and were not yet linked from this page (all disk-verified):

  • Memorial essays: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/my-stories-807||#807 悼先夫——鄭寶鼎 (2021-10)]] (by his wife), [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/my-stories-767||#767 相扶持過一生的典範夫妻：鄭寶鼎丶張錦雲 / 李彥禎 (2020-11)]], [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories-744||#744 悼念鄭寶鼎博士 / 柯金寅 (2020-09)]], [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories-747||#747 緬懷鄭寶鼎先生之餘 / 江正吉 (2020-09)]], [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories-756||#756 我所認識的Bob Cheng / 鍾澄文 (2020-10)]], [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystore-755||#755 Tribute to Dr. Bob Cheng / Dean Chang (2020-09)]], [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/event2020-8||#8 The passing of T. A. Archives’ founder Dr. Bob Cheng]].
  • His archive’s afterlife: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/our-journeys-386||#386 UCSD獲500萬成立台灣研究中心 (2023-05)]] — UCSD’s Taiwan Studies Center holds much of the TAH Archives material he founded and plans professional digitization.
  • Collection record: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/private-collections-102||#102 Collection of the Dr. Bob Cheng 鄭寶鼎博士的收藏]]; association context: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys76||#76 全美台灣同鄉會 / 吳木盛 (2014-12)]] lists 鄭寶鼎 among the New Jersey branch leadership.
  • Family note, not merged: #767 names his wife 張錦雲; the existing Family field lists “Jean”. No vault source explicitly equates the two, so per HOLD-on-name-spelling policy both stand pending review.
  • No new biography asserted, no web used, no new pages created, nothing published.

Deepen pass 2026-10-09 (deepen-x slice 10081000-14, corpus-linked)

Fresh ZH+EN grep (鄭寶鼎/Bob Cheng) across works/articles/sources/events/topics surfaced 7 previously-unlinked in-vault records, now absorbed:

  • Community-history urging — [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/our-journeys-376||#376 中西部台灣人夏令會簡史 / 洪國治 (2021-08)]]: the MTSC (Midwest Taiwanese Summer Conference, 1971–2020) history was written at the explicit urging of T.A. Archives founder Bob Cheng — he prompted 洪國治 to continue the 1971–1988 list first printed in the 1988 Michigan State University conference handbook, extending it to 2018. Evidence Cheng used his Archives to drive community historiography, not just collect.
  • Memorial-essay cluster (2020-09, 台美史料中心 memorial series) — six more tributes not previously linked: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories-742||#742 懷念鄭寶鼎博士 / 方秀蓉]], [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories-743||#743 緬懷鄭寶鼎先生 / 李淑櫻]], [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories-745||#745 感念台美史料中心創辦人鄭寶鼎先生 / 劉惠麗]], [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories-752||#752 追念鄭寶鼎博士 / 歐春美]], [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories-753||#753 追憶鄭寶鼎博士 / 王漢平]], [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories-754||#754 鄭寶鼎博士和 THSH/TA Fund / 葉郁如]]. #754 ties him to THSH/TA Fund work. Together with the already-linked 807, the corpus now holds a 13-essay memorial cluster — an unusually dense community record.
  • No dates/ages asserted; no conflicts to HOLD (all consistent with 2020-09-20 passing / 1940–2020); no web used; no new pages; nothing published.

Deepen pass 2026-10-11 (deepen-x slice 10100500-20, corpus re-grep)

Fresh ZH+EN grep (鄭寶鼎/Bob Cheng) across works/articles/sources/events/topics re-run: 25 hits, hit set identical to prior saturation rounds — all work records already absorbed and wikilinked. One previously unabsorbed community fact surfaced from [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys76||#76 全美台灣同鄉會 / 吳木盛 (2014-12)]]: in the 許和瑞 presidency (c. 1972–73), Cheng was the New Jersey representative of the 美東台灣人夏令會 organizing team for the joint 1973-07-19–22 Camp Taconic session (美東基督徒第四屆 / 美東台灣同鄉會第一屆夏令會), alongside 張富雄 (NY), 吳明基, 黃東昇 (Pittsburgh), 李豐明 (Upstate NY) — the session that launched the continuing 美東夏令會 series. This is his earliest community-organizing record in the corpus, predating the TAA-NJ founding. No dates/ages asserted; no conflicts to HOLD; no web used; no new pages; nothing published.

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