Echopedia

Dr. Fu-Tong Hsu (徐福棟博士)

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Dr. Fu-Tong Hsu (徐福棟博士)

Dr. Fu-Tong Hsu (徐福棟博士, 1936–2015) was a Taiwanese-American engineer, professor, and educator from Changhua, Taiwan, best known as the first president of the TAA/New York Chapter (大紐約區台灣同鄉會), an organizer/founder of the Board of the Taiwanese American Conference/East Coast (美東台灣人夏令會理事會), and White House economic advisor for President Clinton (1994–1996).

Identity Snapshot

  • English: Dr. Fu-Tong Hsu
  • Chinese: 徐福棟博士
  • Era: 1936-2015
  • Geography: Changhua, Taiwan
  • Core roles: engineer, professor, educator
  • Source: TAH Foundation Who’s Who
  1. Organizer of the Board of Taiwanese American Conference/East Coast (創立美東台灣人夏令會理事會)

Education

  • National Taiwan Univ. — 1959 — B.S., Civil Eng.
  • Univ. of Oklahoma — 1961-1962 — M.S., Civil Eng.
  • CASE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY — 1968 — M.S., Operations Research/Management Science
  • Kansas State Univ. — 1971 — Ph.D., Industrial Engineering/Management Science

Employment

  • Wayne State University — Assistant Professor — (1970-) — Union Carbide Corp. — Senior Management Consultant — (1973-) — Lin Mao-sheng Cultural Foundation — Chairman — (1997-) — Changjung Christian University — Vice President — (1996-2002) — Vision Youth Action Network — President — (2003-2009) — White House — Economic Advisor for President Clinton — (1994-1996) — Community — TAA/New Jersey Chapter (紐澤西台灣同鄉會) — President — TAA/New York Chapter (大紐約區台灣同鄉會) — First President — Taiwanese American Conference/East Coast (美東台灣人夏令會理事會) — Organizer/Founder

Community Leadership

  • First President, TAA/New York Chapter (大紐約區台灣同鄉會) — per TAH #224, from the 1964 founding generation of the chapter — TAA New York
  • President, TAA/New Jersey Chapter (紐澤西台灣同鄉會)
  • Organizer/Founder, Board of the Taiwanese American Conference/East Coast (創立美東台灣人夏令會理事會)
  • Chairman, Lin Mao-sheng Cultural Foundation (1997–); Vice President, Changjung Christian University (1996–2002); President, Vision Youth Action Network (2003–2009)
  • Economic Advisor for President Clinton, White House (1994–1996)
  • President, TAA/New Jersey Chapter — the chapter’s own vault page: |TAA New Jersey (紐澤西台灣同鄉會); his Oklahoma M.S. years (1961–1962) coincide with the |Taiwanese Association of Oklahoma era, though no personal membership is documented.
  • Invited speaker in the Capital Region (NY) Taiwanese American Heritage Week lecture series — talk 「邁向尊嚴之路－新台灣人與台灣文化的認同」 (The Road to Dignity — The New Taiwanese Identity and Culture), recorded in the Capital Region Taiwanese Cultural Society history: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys311||Our Journeys #311 (陳仲欽, 2017-09)]] — with English translation [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys311-eng||Our Journeys #311 (EN)]]; the society hosted him alongside Wen-cheng Lin, Chungchin Chen, Joyce Weng and others.
  • Listed (starred entry) under Ohio in the first All-Taiwanese American Directory compiled by 陳希寬 — [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys58||Our Journeys #58 (2014-11)]]. HOLD: the Ohio listing vs his documented NY/NJ chapter presidencies — plausibly reflects his Ohio years after Case Institute of Technology (Cleveland), but the directory entry is not independently confirmed as the same person.
  • 2015 — profiled in the “Care for Taiwan by Taiwanese American” (台美人顧台灣) series, no. 26: 「白宮經貿顧問徐福棟 身體『漸凍』愛台灣心永熾熱」 (2015-05-31) — his White House economic-advisor role recalled publicly, and his ALS (漸凍症) diagnosis documented: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories279||mystories #279]].
  • 1985 — at the East Coast Taiwanese Summer Camp (美東夏令營), served as on-the-spot translator when 鍾肇玫 (Chong Chiau-mei) gave a lecture in Hakka, letting Hakka attendees hear their own language in the predominantly Hoklo summer conference — recorded in the Hakka association’s founding memoir: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys169||Our Journeys #169]].
  • 2023 — re-listed among the Capital Region Taiwanese Cultural Society’s invited Heritage Week speakers in the expanded 20-year history of the society (2004–2023, sixty-plus events), alongside 林文政, 陳仲欽, 王婄媂, 黃娟, 楊遠薰, 楊兆隆, 劉永斌, 陳玉峰: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/our-journeys-391||Our Journeys #391]] — the same 「邁向尊嚴之路」 talk recorded in [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys311||#311]].
  • Memorial record: 「91. In memory of Dr. Fu-Tong Hsu 徐福棟生命的禮讚」 (2015/02, published 2015-07-08) — [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/photo-albums-activities-91||photo-albums-activities #91]] — consistent with his Era 1936–2015.

Family

Connected in the Vault

  • Timeline assembled from his own vault record: NTU B.S. Civil Eng. 1959 → Univ. of Oklahoma M.S. 1961–1962 → first president, TAA/New York → Case Institute of Technology M.S. 1968 → assistant professor, Wayne State University (1970–) → Kansas State Univ. Ph.D. Industrial Eng./Management Science 1971 → senior management consultant, Union Carbide Corp. (1973–) → White House economic advisor for President Clinton (1994–1996) → vice president, Changjung Christian University (1996–2002) → chairman, Lin Mao-sheng Cultural Foundation (1997–) → president, Vision Youth Action Network (2003–2009).
  • As organizer/founder of the Board of the Taiwanese American Conference/East Coast he mirrors the West Coast board held in the vault: WC).
  • Wife |林詠梅 (Yunn-Mei Lin)‘s own vault page lists her as an NTU 外文 graduate and lists him as 徐福棟; son Eric is named in both records but has no page yet.

From the record

  • 1985 — at the Taiwanese Summer Conference – East Coast (美東台灣人夏令會), when 鍾肇玫 (Chao-mei Chung) spoke in Hakka, Hsu provided the live translation, moving many Hakka attendees to hear their hometown language at a conference run mainly by Hoklo — recorded in the English edition of the Hakka Association founding account: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys169-eng||Our Journeys #169 (EN, 陳秋鴻 Chiou-Hung Chen, published 2015-08-27)]] (reverse link; ZH original [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys169||#169]] already cited above).

Sources

  • |TAH Foundation
  • |taiwaneseamericanhistory.org
  • [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ota-251||TAH #251 encyclopedia — Dr. Fu-Tong Hsu 徐福棟博士]]
  • [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ff224||TAH #224 — first president of TAA/NY, 1964]]
  • [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/whos-who-192-fu-tong-hsu||TAH #192 Who’s Who entry — Dr. Fu-Tong Hsu]]
  • |Taiwanese American Conference 2005 record — the TAC movement’s later conference history held in the vault, context for the East Coast board he organized/founded (added DEEPEN-X 09112100-3; no new biography)
  • 2026-09-12 deepen pass: publication dates confirmed from the vault work pages behind his encyclopedia entries — #251 published 2019-02-15, #224 published 2016-02-10 (documenting the 1964 TAA/NY founding generation), #192 published 2015-01-06 — all held in the |TAH story corpus. Wife |林詠梅’s page independently lists him as 徐福棟 (spousal cross-confirmation). The Oklahoma-membership note remains inference only; no vault fact states it.
  • 2026-10-15 (P8, DESC_NO_TITLE_MENTION fix): lead paragraph added after the H1 naming the page subject, drawn only from facts already on this page (Identity Snapshot + Community Leadership); no new biography.

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