Yao Yuan Sze, a retired Seattle aerospace engineer, has endowed the directorship of the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University in honor of his father, one of Cornell's first Chinese students, S.C. Thomas "Tommy" Sze. A member of the class of 1905, Sze became a major force in the building of the Chinese railroad system.

The naming of the chair and the endowment was approved Sept. 6 by Cornell's Board of Trustees following a recommendation by Cornell's President Hunter Rawlings. The first holder of the chair is Sidney Leibovich, the Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Engineering.

"S.C. Thomas Sze was a student when the Sibley College led the nation in engineering," says Leibovich. "It is very appropriate that the directorship of the Sibley School be named in honor of one of our first Chinese students, a man who went on to an outstanding career as an engineer in China. The S.C. Thomas Sze '05 endowment follows in the distinguished tradition of the Sibleys and will mean a great deal to the strength of the school."

Several of S.C. Thomas Sze's relatives were or are Cornellians: His brother, Alfred, graduated in 1901; his cousin, Julia 1938; his grand-nephew, Karl 1968, and Karl's future wife, Kay, 1971, and their children, Thomas 1997 and Edward 2003; his grand-nephew, Robert,1964; and his grand-niece, Maureen '62. Currently, his great-grandson, Edward (who also is grand-nephew of Yao Yuan Sze), is in the class of 2003.

Like many male children of affluent Chinese families at the turn of the 20th century, "Tommy" Sze was sent to America for his high school and college education. He was expected to return to China upon graduation to apply what he had learned in his home country. In a brief memoir, Sze wrote of Cornell, "I loved the scenery, the hilly roads, which were so characteristic of that part of the country and the wonderful campus with its beautiful buildings and big trees. Everything was so new to me, and I enjoyed being there." Sze came to admire his professors, including Robert H. Thurston, dean of the Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanical Arts. He learned freehand drawing from Willard D. Straight, who graduated in 1901 in architecture. Sze encouraged Straight to apply to the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and Straight eventually served as U.S. consul in Mukden, a port in Manchuria.

"I had been in America for almost eight years when I finished college. During that period, great changes had occurred in my country, especially after the Boxer Rebellion," Sze wrote. "Everyone was talking about adopting western civilization, but no one knew exactly what the country needed." One thing Sze saw was needed was a railway system. After receiving a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Cornell, he returned to China to work as a locomotive superintendent on the Peking Mukden Railway and went on to build several railways, including the Peking Mukden Railway, the Tientsin Pukow Railway, the Peking Hankow Railway and the Pien Lo Railway.

He also served as director of the Northwest Highway Administration. In industry, he was a director of Cha-Pei Electric Power Company, Shanghai Power Company, Hsin-Hang Banking Corporation, Yung-Hang Banking Corporation and Kiang-Fung Banking Corporation. He also was a director of a number of shipping companies and oversaw the development of a major shipping port.

In 1949, he emigrated to the United States to be closer to his children, who, like their father, had traveled to America for their education.

Among Thomas Sze's memories was an official visit to China by William H. Taft, secretary of war in Theodore Roosevelt's cabinet (and later to become the 27th president of the United States) and the president's daughter, Alice Roosevelt. Straight met the party in Mukden, and Sze, as a graduate of an American university, was assigned to accompany the party to Beijing. Once-forbidden sections of the city were opened to the visitors. "The imperial boat, which the Empress Dowager used to ride on the lakes for pleasure, was utilized to bring the party from the Middle Lake to the North Lake, passing though a sea of pink lotus flowers in full bloom," Sze wrote.

The party climbed the steep steps of the White Dagoba Temple. "The secretary was a stout person," Sze noted, "and the climb was difficult for him . . . he was finally carried up in a wicker chair".