Gloria Lai-Ping Chow

Gloria Lai-Ping Chow, age 58, of Victoria, British Columbia died on December 20, 2020 after a 4 year battle against lung cancer. Gloria was born and spent her early years in Hong Kong. She moved to Fort McMurray, Canada, with her family when she was in grade 9. She did a Computer Engineering degree at University of Alberta, graduating in 1986.
She moved to Japan in 1988 where she connected with her husband-to-be Don Murray. After spending 6 months in Hong Kong in 1990, she and Don returned to Edmonton, Alberta to do their Masters' degrees, Gloria's in Computer Science. Following her M.Sc., Gloria and Don went to France for a year research term, then ended up settling in Vancouver, BC.
They lived in Vancouver for 25 years. They had their son, Duncan, in 2005 and adopted their daughter, Josie, in 2010. For almost 20 years they worked for the company Point Grey Research, going through all the stages of a small barebones start-up to a manufacturing company that employed 350 people.
Gloria was diagnosed with lung cancer in the fall of 2016. Her treatment held the disease at bay and preserved her quality of life until 2020 when she started to seriously decline. She passed away December 20, 2020.
Gloria was a wonderful woman. She was a loving wife and mother. She was always willing to help others, she loved conversation and enjoyed laughing. She had a reputation as a bit of a dragon at work, as she didn't suffer fools lightly. However she also had a sterling reputation of tackling difficult and complex problems that no one else wanted to touch. She was adventurous but prudent. She loved renovating - designing the layout, planning the furniture, researching the latest improvements and best plumbing fixtures. She especially loved the early stages when she could think about which walls to remove. It was always surprising that the house was still standing after Gloria's creative mind had gone to work.
We miss her very very much.