Yuwei Li died with his wife and daughter by his side on Saturday morning, March 28, 2026. Though he was dealt an unlucky hand many times throughout his 75 years, with great mental fortitude, he crafted a beautiful life for himself and his family. 

Born in Shanghai, China, under communist rule, food was scarce, and intellectual curiosity was discouraged. He studied English in secret and was accepted into the English PhD program at Harvard. He brought his wife and his one-year-old daughter to Cambridge, MA, without any family support, to chase the American dream of a better life. When he realized academia wasn’t for him, he attended Dartmouth/Tuck business school and then spent 10 years commuting by train from the New York suburbs to New York City to work at Unilever and Chase. 

After he achieved his goal of helping his daughter get into Harvard College, he was able to relax and finish out the rest of his business career in the suburbs of New Jersey. There, he had a 10-minute drive to work and had leisure time to kayak on Carnegie Lake, swim, play piano, and take pictures. 

He moved to Washington State after the birth of his first grandchild so he could be with him and later his little brother and sister as they grew up. Yuwei continued to pursue his hobby of photography, always evolving with the times as he transitioned from film to digital, embraced drone photography, and became adept in Photoshop/AI. He travelled the world and hiked to remote locations at any hour of the day to get that perfect photo. His prints won local competitions and were featured in international publications. He loved to play the piano and, as a retirement gift to himself, bought his dream piano: a Bosendorfer concert grand. This is where he practiced Fur Elise with his grandkids. 

This last year and a half of his life, Yuwei knew his unlucky diagnosis was life-limiting, and he was determined to fight as long as he could to spend it with his family. He endured one of the hardest chemotherapy regimens every two weeks for over a year, and it didn’t slow him down. He took one last trip with his wife to Shanghai to see family and enjoy the delicious food. He worked with the kids every day after school on piano and homework. He took local trips with them to Lake Crescent, Seattle, the zoo, and the Olympic Game Farm. He even flew for adventures with the grandkids to the Big Island of Hawaii, San Diego for Spring Break, Yellowstone, and snorkeled with them in the coral reefs of Bora Bora. 

It was during this time that he also transitioned to a very American way of showing affection, including hugs and “I love yous.” This was frankly startling to his daughter, who had become accustomed to “I’m glad I didn’t waste my time on you" as his choice words of affirmation. 

Because Yuwei devoted his existence to engineering better luck for his family, his descendants enjoy a privileged life of abundance and freedom. He is greatly missed. His ashes will be scattered at Paradise on Mt Rainier as the snow thaws this Spring. If you have the privilege of seeing the mountain from where you are, we hope you will remember Yuwei and a life that was not wasted.