Governor's Heritage Award - Ron Chew

Ron Chew has been the Executive Director of the Wing Luke Asian Museum since 1991. A native of Seattle’s Beacon Hill District, he was trained as a journalist at the University of Washington. There he became active in advancing the cause of Asian Americans and the preservation of Seattle’s Chinatown/International District. For over ten years, he was editor of Seattle’s Asian-American newspaper, The International Examiner. In 1990 Chew organized the still ongoing Chinese Oral History Project of Seattle and he edited the book, Reflections of Seattle’s Chinese Americans, based on that project’s interviews. Since Chew’s appointment as director of the Chinatown/International District’s Wing Luke Asian Museum, the museum has won local and national awards. The museum has become one of the nation’s leading ethnic museums. In 2001 President Clinton named Ron Chew to the National Council on the Humanities.