Sunny Wing Chun Liu

1924 - 1987

Sunny W.C. Liu was a minister in the Northwest and the New England Conferences and was a well-known tenor soloist who sang at numberless gatherings in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the last half of the twentieth century. He was active in radio ministry and recorded several albums for Chapel Records.

Sunny was born in Kealia, Kauai, Hawaii, on April 6, 1924, one of three sons and two daughters of Ah Ming and Ah L (Violet) Lau Liu. Sunny was encouraged to become a gospel singer by one of his elementary school teachers. After graduating from Hawaiian Mission Academy, in 1943, he attended Walla Walla College, now University, where, although he enrolled as a pre-medical student at his parent's request, he also prepared for the ministry. He sang frequently on campus and in the area, which led to acclaim in the Western U.S. and requests to sing in Canada and Hawaii.

Following graduation in 1948 as a biology major, Liu served as a singing evangelist in the Upper Columbia Conference in the Pacific Northwest beginning in 1949. He married Bernice Lee, who had been born on October 6, 1927, in Singapore, Malaya, on December 23, 1951.  They would have two sons, Charles Martin and Edward.

Sunny was ordained to the ministry in 1954. Three years later he accepted a position in the New York Conference in the Atlantic Union, where he worked for eight years, before returning in 1965 to the Pacific Northwest where he worked for the next 22 years.

In his lifetime he was a featured soloist at numerous youth congresses, on SDA college campuses, at General Conference Sessions, and at camp meetings. He gave countless concerts in the Northwest, Hawaiian Islands, and Canada, many being presented as benefit programs to help church projects. He recorded several Chapel Records and included a song in every sermon he preached. He worked tirlessly in his last two decades as a pastor in the Oregon area, serving at the Sunnyside, Gresham, University Park, Beaverton, and Lentz churches.

Sunny was serving in the Lentz Church in Portland, when he died on May 20, 1967, at age 63, following a lengthy illness. He was survived by his wife, Bernice, their two sons, his mother and his four siblings.

Sources: Obituaries in the North Pacific Union Gleaner, 15 June 1987, 11, and Adventist Review, 8 October 1987, 21; Chapel Record Liners, Sunny Liu Sings (LP 5071), The Beautiful Land (LP1205), and How Big is God; U.S. Social Security Death Index; Washington Naturalization Records, 1904-1991, 28 February 1956 (Bernice).