Ong Origins

At long last I have figured out how to share my slide show from last year's Mini-Reunion!  Enjoy, and let me know if any comments or questions!  -The Editor

Ong Family 2015 Year-end Newsletter

Dear Ong Family and Friends,

New Year’s greetings to you all!  I write today (also my son Finley’s birthday) from my family’s farm in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, not far from where the American branch of the Ong family lived in a Quaker farming settlement in the 1790’s.  There are still cousins living in the vicinity, making this region the one with the longest period of uninterrupted settlement by American Ongs – over 220 years!  Although given that there are English family records going back to the year 1280, no doubt we have cousins “across the pond” who can boast far deeper local roots.

As you know, I started my blog after the “Mini-Reunion” which my father and I organized in August 2014 around the Bicentennial celebrations of the Quaker Yearly Meeting House in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, built under the leadership of my ancestor Jacob Ong (1760-1849).  At that time we reached out to various random cousins around the country for whom we had contact details, both known and unknown to us.  But we had a very positive response from about 60 cousins, of whom over 40 were able to attend, and we had an enjoyable time in each other’s company for two days.  The unanimous conclusion of the cousins who attended the reunion, was “Let’s keep in touch and do this again!”

The success of the gathering inspired me to continue the family community-building process through the means of sharing some historical materials on a new blog and its accompanying Facebook page (facebook.com/ongfamilyhistory).  Since family history is my 3^rd or maybe even 4^th hobby, I have managed to write only 16 posts on the blog (one a month on average), as well as a few other minor posts on the FB page.  But while I still have a lot of unfinished post ideas which time has not permitted me to complete, the venture has been very successful in expanding the network of Ong cousins.  The OFH page on Facebook now has almost 100 followers, and almost all of these cousins and friends are also personal Facebook “Friends” of mine.  So when I log in on the train home from work most days, I have the treat of following the interests and exploits of various Ongs around the globe.  (This includes Ongs who adopted the name through marriage, and I continue to give all of you special thanks for taking this name by choice!)  It has been a true joy to have connected with so many of you over the last 16 months and I look forward to sharing your “Friendship” – if not real friendship – in the years ahead.  Most of my FB contacts are from five different “clusters” of the US family tree, mostly unknown to each other until now, and I have also been delighted to see how direct communication between members of these clusters has flourished over the past year.

Because of the length of the family’s history and breadth of the family tree, many of us are quite distantly related, though we might share a last name.  Among the American Ongs, some of the younger of us are as distant as ninth cousins to each other – in other words our closest common ancestors are among the three Ong families living in SW Pennsylvania 220 years ago or their parents, Jeremiah & Christiana Ong.  And the relationships between English and American Ongs are more distant still, since our common ancestors were born in the 1500’s or earlier, making the younger of us at least 15^th cousins to each other! 

As a result the profile of our family is very diverse and reflects in many respects the variety of our society as a whole, and this is something which is quite striking from my perspective.  Within the larger American side of the family, we live in all corners of the country, we are in all walks of life, observe many forms of belief and unbelief, are inclined in all directions of political opinion, and live in the widest range of personal and professional circumstances one can imagine.  Of course in our “melting pot” on this continent, the Ongs as a whole long ago ceased to be of only British ancestry, and now we are no longer of only European ancestry.  That's America!

The main “news” in this newsletter is that I repeat our intention to hold a grand family reunion in St. Louis in 2018, exact date tbd.  The Ong Reunion in Smithfield, Ohio in 1905 reportedly had 400 Ongs in attendance and 1000 guests in total, and my ambition is to match this.  It would require some commitment and resolve on all of our parts to make the effort to congregate, but St. Louis is conveniently located in the center of the country, and we have over two years to plan and organize ourselves.  I really don’t know how many cousins reside in America, but I know for certain it is far larger than my 100 Ong Facebook friends!  I also know that many of you already have traditions of regular Ong family reunions within your “cluster”, so I would appreciate your consideration in incorporating that into this grand scheme for 2018!   Also if you are reading this and have not previously been in touch with me, I would appreciate hearing from you by email at ongfamilyhistory@gmail.com or via Facebook.

In the meanwhile, I will continue to post articles of interest relating to our family’s history.  I have also reserved a website with a view that it will act as a host for the blog and as a way to share other related materials, including in time my version of the family tree.  (There is more than one interpretation of some of the areas where the evidence is fuzzy to say the least!)

As an amateur genealogist, I must say the modern trends in family life create some challenges in family tree building.  Multiple marriages are now common, and the tradition of passing down the family name from the paternal line is no longer universally observed.  In fact we have some cousins who have taken the Ong name from their mothers, which helps to offset some of those who have voluntarily surrendered the family name for whatever reason.  It all makes one aware that the use of a last name is a somewhat arbitrary thing, and I am very conscious that in addition to being an Ong we are all members of a vast number of other families, some of whom have married into one another on several occasions.  But a last name does signal connection, and our interest in connecting with unknown cousins I believe comes from a natural desire to belong something greater than the immediate family.  And when one begins to appreciate how large our family connections are, you become also more conscious of how related the entire human family is to one another, and our responsibility to bear that in mind in our dealings with the world.

In conclusion, whether or not you use the Ong name, whether you were born an Ong or married an Ong, or have an Ong mother or only an Ong great-great-great grandmother, or none of the above, I appreciate your interest, friendship and/or kinship, whatever the case may be.  Meet Me in St. Louis in 2018, if not before!

Your cousin,

John F.H. Ong

30 December 2015
  

IN MEMORIAM

Beale Hibbs Ong, M.D. 1932-2015

David Eugene Ong, Ph.D. 1943-2015

Maps of Ong Family Records in England

Cousin B. Nelson Ong sent me some maps last year showing various views of the historical distribution of the Ong family in England last year which I am very (very!) overdue in sharing.  These were made by Howard Mathieson (maps@surnameorigins.ca).  I cannot attest to the completeness of the underlying data, but it still shows a clear picture of where the family was living both before and after the Reformation and the emigration of the American Ongs in 1630/1.  Enjoy!

Earliest Onge Records in Blackburn Hundred (NW Suffolk)

16th Century Onge Marriages

16th Century Onge Christenings (Baptisms at birth) in England

Same map scoped out.  London is near lower left corner.

Onge Christenings in England 1600 to 1650

Ong Christenings in England 1650 - 1700

Ong Christenings in England 1700 - 1750

Distribution of Ongs in 1881 UK Census

Key to Maps

Beale Hibbs Ong, M.D. (7 July 1932 - 30 August 2015)

Another distinguished cousin has passed away.  RIP

Beale Hibbs Ong, M.D. of St. Michaels, Maryland, died peacefully at his home on Sunday, August 30, 2015.

A 4th generation Washingtonian, born July 7, 1932, Dr. Ong graduated from Bethesda Chevy Chase High School, George Washington University, and George Washington University Medical School before completing his medical training at the University of Pennsylvania and Boston Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Ong trained in pediatrics and neurology and practiced pediatric medicine for 45 years. During his early medical career, he served as a captain in the United States Army. He contributed to the advancement of pediatrics by serving in various professional organizations including the Medical Staff for Washington Children’s Hospital and the Emeritus Board of Children’s National Medical Center. Dr. Ong was also a published author. Devoted to his patients and the art of medicine, he loved every minute of his medical career.

Dr. Ong had a strong belief in the enjoyment of life. In addition to his love of medicine, he thoroughly delighted in fishing, sailing, and tennis. He cherished his family and wonderful friendships.

Dr. Ong was preceded in death by his parents, Harry Alfred Ong, M.D. and Eleanor Homiller Ong, his brother Harry Alfred Ong, Jr. and sister, Eleanor O. Chatfield-Taylor. He is survived by his beloved wife of 54 years, Linn Whitelaw Ong, his children, Beale Hibbs Opsahl-Ong, John Whitelaw Ong and Carter Ong Smith and seven loving grandchildren, to whom he will always be “Poppa Doc” He will long be remembered for the joy he brought to so many.

Services will be held at Christ Episcopal Church 301 South Talbot Street, St. Michaels, Maryland at 2:00PM on Saturday September 12, 2015.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made in Dr. Ong’s name to Children’s National Medical Center, 111 Michigan Ave, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20010 or to Talbot Hospice Foundation 586 Cynwood Drive, Easton, MD 21601.

Arrangements are by the Ostrowski Funeral Home P.A. St. Michaels, MD. (www.ostrowskifh.com) 

Source: http://www.ostrowskifh.com/obits/obituary.php?act=entertrib&id=567286

More on the Ongs

Today is the first anniversary of my starting this blog, and to celebrate (and to minimize effort during my vacation!) I re-print below my first longer genealogical essay "More on the Ongs" posted to the Ong Family Forum on Genforum in December 1998 when I was living in London and beginning to explore work being done on the family in the early days of the internet.  I have made a few editorial remarks, but more or less my opinions made here still reflect what I know or believe. 

Market Square, Lavenham, Suffolk, England:

Edmund and Frances Onge were shopkeepers in Lavenham in the early 1600's

 



I thought I would respond to the recent challenge made by the site Webmaster by posting on this forum some general background material I have shared with other members of the forum in direct e-mails.
My name is John Francis Harlan Ong.  My first middle name is a result of the Francis/Edmund error in the 1906 book, "The Ong Family of America" by Dr Albert R Ong, in which he names the (male) progenitor of the American Ongs as Francis.  However we now believe that this was actually the name of our female progenitrix, Frances Ong (nee Reed), married to Edmond Onge in 1602.  It seems that the error was caused by the possibility that Frances Ong crossed the ocean as a widow, as there is no record of Edmund's death in Massachusetts Bay and there is a death record of an Edmond Onge in England in 1630. My parents discovered this in the late 1960's, but by then it was too late for my name!  (Dr Ong named his son Harlan Francis Ong for the same reason.) This error is well known to many of you.   (There was a Francis Onge who crossed the Atlantic with Frances Onge and her children, but he was likely Edmund's cousin who later returned to England with wife and child, attended Cambridge University, and was ordained as a Church of England priest.  Maybe life as a Massachusetts Puritan just didn't agree with him!  -Ed.)
   
For those of you who have access to the 1906 book ("The Ong Family of America" by Albert R. Ong, -Ed.), I am descended from (Dr) William Franklin Ong ("Frank"), #177.  My great Aunt Helen is mentioned as there as a child; my grandfather was her brother Louis Brosee Ong.  Most of the 20th century Ongs in our branch can be found in the Blackburn database (www.blackburn-tree.org).  The well-known Jesuit scholar Father Walter Jackson Ong is descended from Richard Marshall Ong (#141).
   
The 1906 book is obviously in need of corrections and updating. In fact Dr Ong had missed out several lines, especially those of Jeremiah's (who lived in the mid-18th century) younger sons Jesse and Jeremiah Jr.  Their descendants can still be found in Western Pennsylvania.  It's surprising they were not known to their Smithfield, Ohio-based cousins such as Dr Ong, all of whom were descended from the older son Jacob Ong (see below).    

The American Ongs emigrated in 1630-31 as Puritans but migrated to Quaker beliefs by the late 17th century, and actively participated in this movement until the late 19th century.  They were pioneer settlers of Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, and parts further west (including Ong, Nebraska!).  My ancestor Jacob Ong (1760-1849) fought in the Revolution in the 8th Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line(unusually for a Quaker).  This regiment served in the Western Pa frontier and was part of the Fort Laurens expedition into the Ohio country, where Jacob later setted.  Jacob is known to have designed and built the Friends Yearly Meeting House in Mount Pleasant, Ohio (built 1814), now a State Historical site.

There are many theories for the origin of the name "Ong".  Many are wild and speculative, but the only scholarly etymological source I have seen is by Henry Barber in his "British Family Names" (London 1903). It has the following entry (my explanations of the abbreviations are indicated by "(=xx)"):
    
ONG. N (=Old Norse/Icelandic) Ungi (?) (the younger); F (=Frisian)
Onke, dimin. of Onno; G (=German) Unger; Fl (=Flemish) Ongers; p.n.
(=place name) or Ongar; a loc. n; Essex.

Ungi "younger" is also a nickname for another name "Uni". It's all
speculative, but I prefer the idea that Ong is a Nordic cognate of young or younger. Modern Norwegian for young is "Ung". Viking or Germanic sources are more likely for an East Anglian family. (That said, I have found a reference to a 1562 John Ong in a history of the Scottish Clan MacKinnon. He was the 2nd son of the 24th Chief Lachlan Dubh and is slain in the battle of Culivi or Coolin.) By the way one of our Akron, Ohio-based distant cousins changed his name in
the late 70's "back" to "St.Onge". This will confuse future genealogists for sure! We didn't really know this family so we made no objection to their error, but it's part of the family ethos to put up with other people assuming you're Chinese, so we're disappointed.  (After all if my mother, Lee Ong, can put up with this, anyone can.)  St.Onge was no saint, the name is a corruption of the ancien regime province of Saintonge (across the Garonne from Bordeaux), a name derived from the Celtic Santones tribe.    

Some facts about the English Ongs which Frances and her children left behind: Edmond/Edmund Onge was born in 1568 in Lavenham. His father Edmond/Edmund was born in 1537 and married Elizabeth Ladyman in 1562, all in Lavenham.  Edmund & Frances had at least many children born in Lavenham, but only two are certain to have made the crossing, We can confirm that most (but not all) of these children died in infancy or childhood, and the stats of the family can be found in John Sawyer's recent message in this Forum.  The oldest child, Mary (b 1606), sailed to Boston separately in 1634, and an Edmund, who may or may not be a son of Edmund and Frances, went to Cambridge in 1629/30. (see below).

It is not easy to link these Edmund Onges precisely to the many other Ong/Onge records in the villages south and east of Bury St Edmunds.  But the English parish records start around this time, so linkages are difficult to make. Onges appear on many earlier tax and
muster roll records.  The earliest I know of is the 1327 "Subsidy
Return" in Suffolk (5 men named in 4 towns).   (But see post on this blog: "The earliest Ong (or rather "Onge") records: 1280 and 1283 AD" -Ed.).   

Ongs seemed to prosper during the 17th century - 6 attended Cambridge University in the period 1629-1653, the earliest being Edmund who matriculated in 1629 and who is either the son of Edmund & Frances born in Lavenham, or a son of a family in Bury St Edmunds.  I link all of these events - including the crossing by Frances - to the growing influence of Puritan dissenters and the Ongs' participation in this movement.    

Some Ongs also moved to Ireland in the 17th or 18th centuries, I believe as part of the protestant merchant class in Dublin.  An Ong was a High Sheriff of Dublin in the 18th century. 

By the way, Lavenham, the ancestral home of the two Edmonds in Suffolk, is one of the most beautiful and well preserved medieval villages in England, little changed from when the Ongs emigrated.    

There are still Ongs in England, and some live in London, where I currently reside although I have not yet intruded upon them - it is very un-English to do so!  (But I did connect with a distant English cousin not long after writing this. -Ed.)  However we are heavily outnumbered in the phone book by Asian Ongs!

I used to live in Turkey.  When visiting the Gallipoli WWI battlefield site, I found an Ong grave within a few minutes of wandering around the British Commonwealth cemetaries - the
headstone read "W.H.Ong, Quartermaster Sergeant, Lancashire Fusiliers".  There are over 20,000 headstones, so I've always felt I was led there somehow by the spirit of a very distant English cousin.

My paternal descent from 1537:

Edmund Onge (Lavenham)Edmund Onge (Lavenham, family to MA)
Isaac Ong (MA to NJ) (Might be Edmund's grandson? -Ed.)
Jacob Ong ("Sr" NJ)
Jacob Ong ("Jr" Burlington Co NJ)
Jeremiah Ong (to Western PA)
Jacob Ong (to Smithfield OH)
Finley (Smithfield)
Moses Harlan Ong (Smithfield)
Harlan Ong (Smithfield)
Dr William Franklin Ong (Uhrichsville OH)
Louis Brosee Ong (Uhrichsville)
John Doyle Ong (Hudson OH)
John Francis Harlan Ong (London UK) (and now Norwalk, CT  -Ed.)
   
That's all folks! (for now!)
JFHO



A Visit to Ong's Hat, New Jersey

Last month I had an engagement requiring my driving to Philadelphia, and on the way home I took a detour off the New Jersey Turnpike to revisit the first (but not only) place named after a family member, Ong's Hat, located on the western edge of the Pine Barrens of central New Jersey.  If you're looking for it yourself, you can enter 794 Magnolia Road, Southampton Township, NJ 08088 into your navigation and you're on your way!

The nearest town is Buddtown, and the road from Buddtown to the southeast is called "Ong's Hat Road" which joins Magnolia Road about a half a mile west of Ong's Hat itself and the road signs and mailboxes along the way are the only opportunities to see "Ong's Hat" in writing.

Ong's Hat is described in its Wikipedia entry as a ghost town, which is not strictly speaking true since there are about four or five houses there, as evidenced by the mailboxes at the end of short dirt road angling off of Magnolia Road which is Ong's Hat's principal - and only - street.

There are a couple of abandoned commercial buildings on the main road.  The larger one was once a restaurant, and was called "Ong's Hat Tavern" when I first discovered the hamlet in the 1980's.  (My wife and I ate there and bought a tee-shirt emblazoned with "Let's Go To The Hat" together with a picture of a dancing/smiling top hat.)

The historical origins of Ong's Hat are obscure and debated.  The place name is certainly found on various 18th century New Jersey maps, and the Ong family did live in this county starting in the late 17th century.  This exchange from the New York Times on June 30, 1968 illustrates the two extremes of the story:

To The Editor:

In his review (May 12) of "The Pine Barrens" by John McPhee, Earl Schenck Miers repeats an old and erroneous fable.  As a member of the Ong family I would like to say that the town of Ong's Hat is a misnomer.  The Ongs were Quakers and settled in Little Egg Harbor, Burlington County, N.J., early in the 17th century.  They were down at the shore and had to take their grain up to Burlington to be ground by bagging it and slinging the bags over the backs of their horses.  Half way to Burlington they stopped overnight to break the journey and built a small shelter at what is now Ong's Hat but was actually Ong's Hut.

Ross K. Cook

East Orange, N.J.

Mr. Miers replies:

According to the late Fr. Henry Charlton Beck, whose "Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey" was first published by E.P Dutton in 1936 and reissued by the Rutgers University Press in 1961, the legend of Ong's Hat was well founded.  Indeed, it was a shining topper that the maid trampled and flung into a tree, if Father Beck can be trusted, which gave notoriety to the tale.  Otherwise, Ong's Hat was known for its secret prize fights and the murder of a Polish woman, whose skull sat for years in the office of the sheriff of Burlington County to remind him that he had not solved this murder.  When Father Beck found the Ongs, most of them lived near Tuckerton, and were probably carried there by the mosquitoes that infest the country around Little Egg Harbor.

Mr. Cook was the foremost Ong genealogist of his generation, so I tend to believe his version which I know fits with the facts.  But Ong's Hat has been long associated with myths, legends and mystery, and in addition to the many variations of Jacob Ong's hat somehow being stuck in a tree, the small settlement has also inspired various works of contemporary fiction.  There is even a small sub-industry of space- and time-travel stories based in Ong's Hat on the internet.



So while there is not much to see or do in the actual Ong's Hat, the virtual Ong's Hat is vast and full of opportunities for discovery.  You can start exploring the weird and wonderful on-line world of Ong's Hat yourself through these links:

From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ong's_Hat,_New_Jersey

Also from Wikipedia, but about the Ong's Hat internet conspiracy stories:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ong's_Hat

From NJPineBarrens.com:
http://www.njpinebarrens.com/a-hat-a-hut-or-a-tavern-the-tale-of-ongs-hat/

From Weird NJ website:

http://weirdnj.com/stories/ongs-hat/

From Hidden NJ website:
http://www.hiddennj.com/2011/05/traveling-into-vortex-of-ongs-hat.html

There is even an Ong's Hat Band:
http://www.ongshatmusic.com/

David Eugene Ong (16 August 1943 - 25 April 2015)

A distinguished cousin has passed away.  RIP.

From the Elkhart (IN) Truth (http://www.elkharttruth.com/obituaries/2015/05/13/David-E-Ong.html):

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Dr. David Eugene Ong, 71, of Nashville, passed away due to cancer the morning of April 25 in his home.

He was born Aug. 16, 1943, in Elkhart, Ind.

He graduated from Elkhart High School in Elkhart. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Wabash College in 1965, where he graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Yale University in 1970.

David was best known as a scientist in the biochemistry department at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine from 1970 until 2008. Together with his mentor, Frank Chytil, they served to change our understanding of vitamin A. The discovery of cellular binding proteins for retinol and retinoic acid (two forms of vitamin A) by Chytil and Ong expanded the importance of this vitamin and revolutionized our understanding of its true roles. Dr. Ong and Dr. Chytil shared the prestigious Osborne and Mendel Award from the American Institute of Nutrition in 1983.

David continued to work in the study of vitamin A function throughout his career and was considered to be one of the leading authorities in this field. He published widely and was in demand as a speaker internationally. He always challenged dogma and loved to approach research using lateral thinking and taught others to do the same.

David had many friends, especially in academia and the music industry. He was truly a renaissance man. He was an amateur photographer, videographer and painter. He was also a collector of art and sculpture. He enjoyed gardening and grew many Bonsai trees. His Bonsai trees were his living sculptures. He enjoyed woodworking and was very creative in his constructions. He loved games and had a nine-foot pool table and seven pinball machines.

David’s favorite avocation was music. He had an extensive collection of vinyl records and CDs that covered early to modern; jazz, gospel, blues, bluegrass and rock ’n’ roll. He had a encyclopedic knowledge of the styles, performers and bands and their history, especially jazz. He loved to attend live performances. Nashville was definitely the perfect town for him.

His charm, compassion, kindness, incredible wit and sense of humor consistently brightened people’s day. He will be missed by all who were fortunate enough to have worked with him, to have been mentored by him and to have been his friend.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Richard Ong and Mary Alice (Glace) Ong of Elkhart, and a brother, Daniel, also of Elkhart. He is survived by his fiancée, Lili Marx of Pittsburgh; his brother, Stephen Ong and wife Teri of Greeley, Colo.; his brother, B. Nelson Ong of New Rochelle, N.Y.; his brother, Page Onge of Nashville; his brother, Kevin Ong and wife Valerie of Elkhart; his sister, Megan Corbridge and husband Bryan of Elkhart; his stepson, John Hauber and wife Lori of Westfield, Ind.; his stepdaughter, Julie Maxham and husband Dave of Florence, S.C.; 17 nephews and nieces; and 21 grandnephews, stepgrandnephews, grandnieces and stepgrandnieces.

A David E. Ong Memorial Scholarship Fund is being set up for students to attend David’s alma mater, Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind.

A memorial celebration of David’s life will be Saturday, May 16, in his home in Nashville. Please contact Page Onge at onge@comcast.net for the location, time and to RSVP.


Vanderbilt University's tribute is here: http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2015/04/david-ong-professor-of-biochmistry-emeritus-dies-at-71/

A visit to Saint Louis University and the Ong Center

On Wednesday I was delighted to spend a day at Saint Louis University as a guest of the Walter J. Ong, S.J, Center for Language, Culture and Media Studies.  I was very graciously hosted by Dr. Sara van den Berg, Professor of English and Director of the Ong Center, and Dr. Jonathan Sawdey, Chairman of the English Department and Walter J. Ong Chair in the Humanities.

The occasion was the latest of annual symposia (the eighth) incorporating the annual Ong Memorial Lecture, and this year's subject, influenced by the events in nearby Ferguson last autumn, was Race and Expression.  The keynote address was given by Dr. Houston Baker, Chancellor's Professor at Vanderbilt University and renowned authority on African American literary criticism and theory.  My family and I had a hand in supporting the Ong Center and the lecture series at the outset and this was my first chance to actually attend an event and get a sense of what was going on at SLU (the insiders say "Sloo"), whether "Ongian" (another localism) or in general.

I missed the morning program in the Pius XII Library as I had meetings with the University's President, Dr. Fred Pestello, and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Michael Barber, S.J.  (The University and College seem to be in able hands!)  But, after a nice lunch in the faculty club, I attended the afternoon session which was held in the Pere Marquette Gallery in the oldest (I think) academic building, DuBourg Hall, next to the College Church (both in the photo at the top).  The Gallery was the original university library, restored for multi-purpose use, and is a beautiful multi-story space.

One panel in the afternoon consisted of undergraduate students in the African American Studies program, and while of course they were still honing their presentational skills, they all came across as thoughtful and smart.  I was impressed.

Father Ong's work was frequently referenced throughout the day, and his image even once made it to the big screen.  I am happy to say that his spirit and academic legacy are alive and well at SLU and I look forward to a return.  I am especially grateful to Sara van den Berg who conceived of the Ong Center and its mission, and whose guidance and direction has clearly been a labor of love and evidence of deep respect for its namesake.

The gateway to All Things Ongian at SLU is here http://www.slu.edu/the-ong-center.

[Added Jan. 2019: SLU's video tribute to Ong's intellectual legacy is here.]

Perhaps St Louis should be the venue of the next Ong Family Reunion?  It certainly is central to the family's far-flung footprint on this continent!