Daniel Cheng Obituary, Death – On Monday, Daniel Cheng passed away in the Care Dimensions Hospice House in Lincoln. His parents, the late Him Yin Cheng and Sow Trin Wong, welcomed him into the world on November 9, 1943, in Shantou, China. Before relocating to the United States in 1963, he attended Seattle Pacific University after being born in Hong Kong. After completing his undergraduate studies in math and physics, he made the trip to Los Angeles to enroll in UCLA’s master’s program in meteorology. He first met Cynthia Hsu in San Francisco, and they got married in Los Angeles in 1970.
The pair moved to the Boston region in 1973, three years later, as part of a religious emigration. They initially settled in Newton, where they continued their work in the church. In order to earn a second master’s degree in information systems in 1982, Daniel returned to Northeastern. He then taught math at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High Schools. As a result, he agreed to take a job as an engineer at Draper Labs, a non-profit research and development company that produces advanced guidance, navigation, and control technologies for NASA and the US Department of Defense. He retired in 2004 after working at Cambridge’s Draper Labs.
As required by his religion, Daniel quit his job early to spend more time with his family and attending church services. For many years, he devotedly served the Church in Cambridge in a variety of roles, including as a leading brother, a financial trustee, and a member of multiple campus outreach teams at Harvard, BU, and MIT. In addition to his numerous religious duties, he loved to sing, play the piano, study history and maps, and, most significantly, spend time with his grandchildren. His polite, calm, and unassuming manner, constant commitment to the church, and unwavering pursuit of Christ impacted a lot of people.
His loss will be felt deeply by everyone who knew and loved him. His sons, Isaac Cheng and Jessica of Cambridge, Jachin Cheng and Jessica of Singapore, and Daniel Cheng and Becca of Arlington, Virginia, are his surviving children. He also leaves behind his grandchildren, Isaac, Zoe, Liberty, Eben, Bethel, Hope, and Asher, as well as several nieces and nephews. Nelson Cheng, Cary Cheng, and Linda Karpas, all deceased, were his siblings.
