December 2020 | Vol. 7 Iss. 12
FREE
CITY RECEIVES HUNDREDS OF FACEMASKS FROM HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION FOUNDED BY FORMER JUDGE KWAN By Carl Fauver | c.fauver@mycityjournals
U
tah House District 34 Rep. Karen Kwan was reelected last month by a 57% to 43% margin. Among her constituents are thousands of Taylorsville residents. But she is the first to admit the election was one of the few bright spots in what has been a challenging 2020. “It has been such a terribly hard year,” Kwan said. “I have not been able to move forward since my brother’s death. I’m not sure when I will be able to do it. We were so close. I have not been able to get myself there.” Kwan, of course, is referring to her older brother, Michael Kwan, who died unexpectedly on July 21. The rest of us knew him as Judge Kwan, the only municipal court judge Taylorsville has ever had. His life was not claimed by COVID-19. But his passing was every bit as shocking and unexpected to his family as any coronavirus tragedy. “[Michael] was only two years older than me, and we were always so close,” Kwan said. “Growing up in California, people often thought we were twins. We were very close in height and hung out togeth-
er all the time. We have younger and older sisters who both still live in California. But we were the two middle kids and both here in Utah.” In addition to Kwan, other family members survived by the judge include his wife, Jennifer, and grown children Elizabeth and Richard. During an emotional presentation at a recent Taylorsville City Council meeting, Karen and Jennifer Kwan came armed with three large boxes of protective facemasks to donate to the city. They chose that manner to express their appreciation for everything city officials did to coordinate events following Michael Kwan’s death. But the donation of nearly 1,000 masks (“No one took an exact count”) was made not just by the Kwan family but by a historic organization founded by Michael Kwan and others two years ago: the Chinese Railroad Workers Descendants Association. City officials and leaders of the Unified Police Department Taylorsville Precinct coordinated activities in the wake of Judge Kwan’s passing, including a police-escort- Deceased Judge Michael Kwan’s sister Karen and wife Jennifer (front, L-R) recently presented Taylorsville City with hundreds of facemasks as a gesture of appreciation. (Taylorsville City) Continued page 3
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