People
Collection for person entities.
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- Ray Wah Ngep Quan
- Founder and owner of the Far East Restaurant. He was born Quan Wah Ngep in Canton, China (now known as Guangdong) and came to the United States in 1934, when he was thirteen years old. He moved to Amarillo, Texas, where he helped in his family’s restaurant. His World War II draft notice shows that he attended Amarillo High School. In the early 1940’s, the family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico and established a restaurant. Ray Quan married Joyce Toy Sue Mah in 1952. They had five children, whom they raised to speak Chinese and to value Chinese customs. After looking for a smaller community, the extended family relocated to Grand Junction, Colorado in 1954. They bought land at 1530 North Avenue, where Quan’s father and uncle established the Far East Restaurant. The restaurant opened in 1955. Quan valued quality facilities and service in his restaurant. He also valued his family and brought his children into the business. When he oversaw the building’s renovation in the 1980’s, he added architectural details that reflected his Chinese ancestry, as well as cultural aspects from other Asian nations. The new restaurant also had large meeting rooms, making it an important community meeting place. He remained the owner and manager until his death in 2003. He enjoyed visiting China towns in Los Angeles and elsewhere, where he could sample the cuisine and get ideas for his restaurant’s improvement. He died at the age of eighty-one and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Orange County, California.
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- Raymond Edward Myers
- He was born to farmers Sylvester Myers and Carrie Schepp Myers in Kirkview, New York. He attended Minoa High School in Minoa, New York from 1914-1916. He served as a private in the US Army during World War I, and his draft record shows him working as an inspector for a railroad in New York in 1918. According to the US Census, he was working as a stenographer for a steam railway in New York by 1920, when he was 21 years old. He married Nellie Schaffer Myers in Syracuse, New York on February 25, 1922. They moved to Western Colorado for health reasons in 1924. By 1940 they were living in the Fairmount area of Mesa County, Colorado, with the US Census listing Myers’ job as carman. He held this position with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. He was working as a carman on the ammunition train that caught fire on June 27, 1943. He had been sent to Rifle by the D&RG to repair a car on the train that day. In riding the train back to Grand Junction, the crew noticed a hotbox on a car in the middle of the train. He repaired the car, but fire broke out by the time they got to Grand Junction. The fire exploded munitions and sent shells flying all over downtown Grand Junction. He was a precinct committee man for the Democratic Party for fifteen years. He belonged to the Railway Carman of America #122, the Knights of Columbus, the Eagles Lodge, and was the Social Secretary of the Rio Grande Veterans Club. He and his wife had two children. He enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren, hunting and fishing.