Echopedia

Dr. Daniel Kao (高光民)

5 min read

Dr. Daniel Kao (高光民)

Dr. Daniel Kao (高光民) and his wife are named by |Dr. Albert S. Lai among the enthusiastic believers who co-founded the |Formosan Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles (FPCLA) / Formosan Christian Church in the 1970 founding generation.

Identity Snapshot

  • English: Dr. Daniel Kao
  • Chinese: 高光民
  • Era: late 1960s–early 1970s (FPCLA founding generation)
  • Geography: Los Angeles Formosan immigrant community
  • Core roles: FPCLA co-founder (with Mrs. Daniel Kao)

Role in FPCLA

In the 2025 Self-Preface to |Toward A Community of Hope, Dr. Lai lists Dr. & Mrs. Daniel Kao (高光民夫婦) among the core co-founding families who, together with UPCUSA pastors and elders, organized the first Taiwanese Presbyterian church in North America.

The FPCLA org page names the full founding cohort of Taiwanese believer households alongside the Kaos: Dr. & Mrs. C. C. Chen (陳昭俊), Mr. & Mrs. Norman Hsu (許彬), Dr. & Mrs. Isiah Lee (李宗派), Dr. & Mrs. Joseph T. C. Lu (盧俊哲), Mr. & Mrs. Morris Chen (|陳茂雄), Mr. & Mrs. George Chen (陳進琛), Dr. & Mrs. Sze-Ya Yeh (葉思雅), Mr. & Mrs. Wang Chun Hsiung (王春雄), Dr. & Mrs. Jang Yan Wu (|吳政彥), Dr. Wen-Cho Yang (楊哲), Dr. & Mrs. Justin Chen (陳有義), Meiling Lai (賴美玲), and Michael Chen (陳明章). Most of these names have no vault page yet and stay unlinked.

Disambiguation: Not the same person as Chaolong Kao (高昭龍), who was called as organizing minister by the Presbytery of Los Angeles Southwest in September 1971.

Role in the Community (absorbed 2026-09-14 from our own corpus)

  • Our own oral history 2020 (English version: 231. English) names 高光民 first among those who “積極參與支持張牧師開拓事工” — 高光民、陳昭俊、葉思雅、李宗派、許文彬、王春雄、吳政彥、賴信雄 — i.e. the active core behind the first gathering on 1970-08-09 at Centenary United Methodist Church (Normandie Ave & 35th St), the historical founding point of the church.
  • Same work: the congregation entered Wilshire Crest Presbyterian Church in 1971-07 while still under Pacific Presbytery supervision, and received the building outright in 1974 when Wilshire Crest dissolved; FPCLA was formally elevated to a 堂會 of PCUSA on 1973-05-20 — the first Taiwanese-speaking church so recognized by PCUSA in the US.
  • Note on the roster: this oral history lists 許文彬 where the Lai Self-Preface lists 許彬 (Norman Hsu) — treated as the same household, spelling variant only.
  • HOLD: conflict — different Daniel Kao. 切斷一切關係？美國與中國脫鉤 (TJ 2025) quotes 高達偉 (Daniel Kao), assistant professor of supply-chain management at University of Michigan–Dearborn. English name collides; 漢名 differs (高達偉 ≠ 高光民) — not this person, no merge.

Timeline

  • 1970 — Co-founded the Formosan Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles (FPCLA) with his wife, Mrs. Daniel Kao
  • 1971 — Listed among the core co-founding households in Dr. Albert S. Lai’s Self-Preface to Toward A Community of Hope
  • 1971 — Joined the United Presbyterian Church (UPCUSA) system alongside other founding families and UPCUSA supporters

Works

albert-s-lai has 1 article where they appear in the title and 0 additional articles that mention them in the body.

Title Mentions (1 article)

  1. 2025 — |Toward A Community of Hope (2025 Self-Preface) — co-founder listing

Publications

  • 1971 — Named as a co-founder in Dr. Albert S. Lai’s dissertation Toward A Community of Hope — A Mission to Formosan Community in Los Angeles (San Francisco Theological Seminary).
  • 2025 — Named as a co-founder in the 50th anniversary republication of Toward A Community of Hope, published through the |National Taiwanese Presbyterian Council (NTPC) together with |Dr. Yunching Yeh Davis (per the |source hub publication network).

Quotes

“Dr. & Mrs. Daniel Kao (高光民夫婦)” — Toward A Community of Hope, Self-Preface (co-founder listing)

Network

Pages that link to daniel-kao (daniel-kao):

People (6)

  1. albert-s-lai
  2. albert-s-lai
  3. c-c-chen
  4. c-c-chen
  5. chaolong-kao
  6. chaolong-kao

Organizations (3)

  1. formosan-presbyterian-church-in-los-angeles
  2. formosan-presbyterian-church-in-los-angeles
  3. formosan-presbyterian-church-in-los-angeles

Sources (1)

  1. toward-a-community-of-hope

Context: the 1970 founding generation

The Kao household is named in the same Self-Preface listing as |Dr. C.C. Chen (陳昭俊) and the other founding families; the ordained leadership called by the Presbytery of Los Angeles Southwest was |Dr. Charles C.L. Kao (高昭龍), who served the congregation as organizing minister from September 1971. FPCLA became the first Taiwanese Presbyterian church in North America, within the UPCUSA system.

Source Notes and Confidence

  • Content priority A: Named as co-founder couple in Lai Self-Preface (2025 republication of 1971 dissertation context)
  • Content priority C: Detailed biography (education, career, later life) — not in current source set

Name Variants / Disambiguation

  • Daniel Kao
  • 高光民
  • Not: Charles C.L. Kao / Chaolong Kao (高昭龍)

Graph View

Backlinks