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96, died January 9, 2023 at home in Newtown, Pennsylvania after a brief illness. Bo Ock was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to parents, Pok Kee and Ruth Lee. Her father, a horticulturist, moved the family away from the city to the Wahiawa area, where Bo Ock and her siblings were able to play freely outdoors among her father's fruit trees and flowers. She attended Leilehua Elementary and High Schools in Wahiawa, which were not far from the Schofield Army Base and Wheeler Army Airfield. After witnessing Japanese planes flying over their home prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, her parents transferred her and her older sister to the Mid-Pacific Institute, a boarding school in Honolulu, to complete their high school education in a safer environment.After graduating, she sailed to the mainland to attend college at Iowa State University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Foods and Nutrition in 1949. Bo Ock then completed a dietetic internship at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in 1951. That same year she married James Lum of Pace, Mississippi, whom she met while attending university. They settled in Chicago, Illinois, where she worked at various hospitals as a dietitian and clinical nutritionist. Bo Ock earned a Master of Science degree in Biology from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 1973. She then established a private practice in clinical nutrition, counseling patients with special dietary needs until her retirement in 1991.
In her spare time, Bo Ock enjoyed knitting and quilting as hobbies, gifting her family members with now cherished sweaters, vests and unique, hand-quilted creations.
Bo Ock was preceded in death by her beloved husband James; her parents; brothers Surn Ho (Bernice) Lee and Chang Ho Lee; and sisters Surn Ock (Claude) Pitts, Chin Ock (Forrest) Mitchel and Yurn Ock (Wallace) Dunn. She is survived by son Brian Lum; daughters Vanessa Lum (John Buhr) and Melissa Lum (Doug Warner); and grandchildren Claire Buhr (Caleb Buchanan); Jennifer (Ben) Marr; James Lum-Warner; Brian Buhr; and nieces, nephews, cousins.
A memorial service will be held at a later date. Burial is planned at Diamond Head Memorial Park in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Her family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be sent to: Institutional Advancement Office, Mid-Pacific Institute, 2445 Kaala Street, Honolulu, HI 96822, or online: https://www.midpac.edu/giving/make-a-gift.php
