Hweidar Jian was born on February 26, 1959 in Taoyuan, Taiwan, the only son of Fu Mei Chien Huang and her husband, Ching-Jung Chien. After achieving his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from National Chenkung University in Taiwan in 1983, Dar (as he was known to his friends and family) immigrated to the United States in 1985 to further his education and employment prospects. He attended the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo and received his Masters Degree in Computer Science in 1987. While at SUNY, Dar met Connie Liu, a fellow student who had also emigrated from Taiwan in 1986. As they got to know each other, they found that they had much in common and their friendship blossomed into a relationship based on mutual respect, love and friendship. They married in June 1988 in Massachusetts and settled into life in the United States. Together, they became naturalized United States citizens and celebrated the birth of their two children, first William in 1989 and then Kevin in 1993. Together, Connie, an accountant, and Dar, a computer programming specialist, created a loving partnership which transcended culture and family as they shared responsibilities for home and children and were true partners in every sense of the words. Throughout their marriage, Dar and Connie enjoyed traveling and exploring the United States. Dar enjoyed researching and arranging the family’s vacations and most often served as the family tour guide and photographer. His love of travel and family is borne out by his photographs of the family on vacation. He was his wife’s best friend and his children’s proudest champion. He enjoyed gardening and loved to build things with his hands. His creative spirit was revealed in the home repair and carpentry projects that he did in his spare time. At the end of August 2001, the family accompanied Connie on a business trip to Taiwan and enjoyed two weeks of traveling, sightseeing and visiting with family and old friends. Dar, William, and Kevin returned home prior to the start of the school year and Connie remained behind for several business meetings. When Connie returned home on September 10, 2001, she and Dar stayed up until late in the evening talking about her business trip, the family vacation they just shared and their plans for the future. Shortly after she arrived to her office on the morning of September 11, 2001, Connie received a telephone call from Dar. He told her that a plane had hit his building and that there was a lot of smoke on his floor. He was coughing. After a few precious seconds of conversation, the line went dead. Dar was recovered on September 22, 2001 and on September 30, 2001 his friends and family gathered to celebrate his life and mourn his loss. He was universally remembered as a dedicated family man who was always smiling, always willing to lend a hand, and always generous in time and spirit. His remains were returned to the land of his birth and have been placed in a mausoleum near one of the places that Dar enjoyed visiting during his last trip to Taiwan.