RE community mourns the passing of Mr. Che

The upper school community learned of Che’s passing at a special assembly hours after he died. At the conclusion of classes that day, students, faculty and staff gathered at The Ringing Rock, where Head of School Penny Townsend and several of Che's students honored him with tributes. At the end of the memorial, dozens of students took turns ringing the bell in his memory. Alumni sent reflections and condolences via social media and through emails; the entire community expressed sympathy to his wife, Shuyang Liu, and daughter, Hui Che.

“Mr. Che was more than just a teacher; to all of us he was a mentor and a friend,” Margaret "Liza" Dill '21 said. “If I could ever be half as kind as he was, I would consider my life a success ... The best way for all of us to remember him is to treat others with kindness, always do your best, appreciate each other, and just love each other.”

Said Samantha Miller '21: “I’m a true believer that … he truly touched every single one of us in a way that we are going to remember forever. He was truly a light in this community … He devoted his life to teaching us because he knew we were going to carry on his message where ever we went in life.”

Forced to leave his home country after participating in the Tiananmen Square protests, Che stood out at Ransom Everglades for his profound love of the United States, a country he was proud to call his adopted home. Elliot Sable '21 recalled that he lived by two rules once he came to America: “never live in fear, and always tell the truth.”

Students credited Che with making learning vivid; he shared stories about years spent in a labor camp as a youth under Mao, and told them about the political activism that led him to Tiananmen Square in 1989. As a child, he recognized that perfecting his English would provide opportunities later. After departing China in 1991, he moved to the United States, where he eventually began teaching Chinese.

“Mr. Che was much more than a teacher to everyone here; he was someone who really did see the darkest parts of humanity in his life,” Erik Medina '21 said. “And yet he never doubted that any of us would be the best parts of it, that we would go on and make changes in the world … He had such faith that all of us, regardless of how good we were at Chinese ... would go on to do great things.” 

Since arriving to RE in 2008, Che transformed the program to one of the cornerstones of the world languages department. In an email sent to the RE community on the day of his death, Townsend noted that “Mr. Che cared deeply about his students, and was known for his gentle demeanor, kindness and determination to promote cross-cultural understanding. He was also determined to teach his students how to speak Chinese. I have heard from many former students who excelled in Chinese in college due to the strong foundation they built under Mr. Che’s tutelage.”

The head of school also shared an email Che had sent to her and several colleagues on January 7, the day after the siege of the U.S. Capitol and moments after they had spoken at an upper school assembly about what had transpired in Washington D.C. 

Wrote Che: “I cried through your speeches during the assembly with strong emotions. Thank you from the deep of my heart for sharing with me and all of us your truthfulness and honest statements. 

“I was deeply hurt yesterday and came to school very emotional. Thank you for helping me to finally release everything I have been holding internally since 2016. 

“I tell people all the time that I was not born as you to be a US citizen. I chose to be a citizen of this great country. To go through all these is very painful. But the healing starts today.”


Mr. Che remembered photo gallery