Living Hero: Dr. C.K. Chai

[Jan Eveleth]

I grew up in Bar Harbor, Maine. Bar Harbor is known mostly as a tourist destination, gateway to Acadia National Park. But it is also home to a world-renowned genetics research lab--The Jackson Lab. Our Bar Harbor neighbors, the Chai's, were here because Dr. Chai worked at the lab. Their daughter, Jean was and remains a best friend of mine. It is Dr. Chai that I am writing about today.

The details of his early life have always been obscure to me. I do know, he was born and raised in China (now mainland China). As a young adult he was a member of Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist army which was engaged in the long-standing civil war with the Chinese Communist Party. In those days, Dr. Chai was a horse veterinarian and it was his job to care for the army horses.

At some point, Dr. Chai came to the United States. He went to a major university MIchigan (I believe it was Univ. of Michigan) and got his doctorate in biology which led him to his position at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Dr. Chai is a multifacted man. He was a consummate scientist (now long retired). But he is also a consummate artist having spent a lifetime with inks and watercolors immersed in traditional chinese calligraphy and landscapes. Music was integral to his life and many times when visiting, he would be listening intently to one of his many Chinese opera albums. This was a man who kept his culture and traditions alive even when he was so far from the land where he was born.

In the 1960s, Dr. Chai bought a small lakeside property. In the decades following, he carefully designed and meticulously built a home on that property. Everything about the home was intentional, just like his paintings. Every stone, every proportion, every cabinet & closet carefully considered and placed for function and beauty. The house and the property have some amazing stonework. All built and constructed with his hands.

Growing up, he was to me mostly just Jean's Dad. Thoughtful, engaged and interested in what we were doing, and often a joke and smile to be shared. As the years have gone by and I have time to reflect on how he built his life for himself and his family, I see Jean's Dad, the hero.