James Quong

James Quong died at his home in Rancho Palos Verdes. He was 88.

Quong was born in Fort Bragg, California on Jan. 7, 1929, the third of six children. In 1943, shortly after the death of his father, the family moved to San Francisco, where he graduated from Lowell High School. He participated in track and placed in the city championships in the long jump. Quong then studied at University of California, Berkeley, where he received a bachelor’s and master’s in physics. After graduation, he worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (then known as the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory) in Livermore.

He married in 1960 and returned to Berkeley to complete his doctorate in theoretical physics in 1966. He moved to southern California to work with the Northrop Corporation Labs in Hawthorne and settled in Rancho Palos Verdes, doing many typical suburban things like refereeing soccer games and assisting in Little League games. Quong had a lifelong love of music, from big band to disco, and he enjoyed history, politics, Chinese culture, chess, bridge and sports.

He is survived by his wife, Janet; his children, Russell, Ted, Alex and Melanie; grandchildren, Brayden and Eleanor; and his brothers, Carl, Roland and Norman and nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his sister, Mary. A private service was recently held at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Colma.