FREEPORT – Tse-Wu Tai, M.D., 86, passed away peacefully at home on Sept. 27, with his wife and daughter at his bedside.

He was born April 5, 1922 in Funíng County, Jiangsu Province, China, the eldest son of Yizhuo Dai and Shi Hsu. He was a selfless man who always put others’ welfare before his own, especially that of his family and his patients. He made great personal sacrifices to bring his family to the U.S., leaving his family for long periods to establish a career in the U.S.

He was a warrior for whatever is highest and best for others, always doing what he thought was right for his patients, putting his high standard of care in conflict with surgeons and his career advancement. All his life, he felt the great loss of his parents at the tender age of seven, driving himself to save others through his medical training. He was a brilliant man who meticulously managed and organized his life and remembered life’s events in minute detail.

He loved to travel and his long-time desire was to drive all over the U.S. and Canada by car after retirement. He was fascinated by new technology and the latest gadgets. He owned one of the first calculators and the first VCR with a “remote,” which was attached by a cord. He narrowly escaped with his life in war-torn China and attempted kidnappings, so he always put the safety of his family first.

Dr. Tai served as a surgeon in the Chinese Air Force, an OB/GYN in Taiwan, a ship’s doctor and an anesthesiologist in Canada and the U.S. One of his greatest joys is saving lives as a doctor. His proudest memories were of saving a man from almost complete blood loss and averting a young child in the operating room from a rare deadly allergic reaction to the anesthesia. From childhood, he desired to become a doctor, since his mother died of typhoid fever at age 37, his father of cholera at age 42 and his stepmother died of cancer. He struggled with daily survival during the Chinese Civil War and the Chinese-Japanese War to earn his medical degree in China. As a child of the feudal land-owner class in China, he barely escaped two attempted kidnappings.

Dr. Tai graduated from the seventh class of Fujian Medical University in 1947. He changed his given name from Hai-ao to Tse-Wu in high school. He served as a squadron surgeon in the Air Force. He met his wife working at the Air Force hospital and they were married in December 1948 and two months later they barely escaped communist takeover in China, fleeing to Taiwan on the last few planes and cargo ships.

He worked for the Air Force Hospital after arriving in Taiwan with his squadron before being assigned to OB/GYN and becoming the head of obstetrics three years later. Food was rationed to the hospital staff and Dr. and Mrs. Tai struggled with adequate food for themselves, their young son and Dr. Tai’s younger brother. Like many other Chinese families where the father travels abroad to earn a living and sent money home to support his family, Dr. Tai worked as a ship’s doctor to earn enough money to emigrate to the U.S. to make a better life for his family.

He came to the U.S. in 1964, where he had to go through medical internship and residency because his medical degree, training and experience were not recognized by the U.S. He switched from OB/GYN to anesthesiology because foreign OB/GYN doctors were not easily accepted in the 60s. He trained and worked in Chattanooga, Pittsburgh, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Moncton, New Brunswick and West Virginia. He worked in Rumford Community Hospital for 17 years, until age 68, and he continued per diem work until retiring at age 70.

After retirement, Dr. Tai was not able to drive all over the U.S. and Canada as his vision had weakened. He fulfilled his love for travel and adventure by flying annually to the American Society of Anesthesiologists conventions with his wife, joined by his daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren when they could. As a hobby during retirement, he trained in medical acupuncture. He was a western-trained physician to the core, as he began each acupuncture treatment with “I don’t know if this is going to work or not” and proceeded with electro-acupuncture. Each treatment was successful, though he never believed in the results.

Toward the end of life, he was comforting his children as they traveled to Maine to see him. Like men in general, he didn’t want people to grieve for him. He said that he lived a good long life and it was time to go. He will be greatly missed for his love and sacrifice for his family and their safety, his dedication to medicine and high standard of medical care for his patients.

He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Wei-Teh Tai; a son, Eugene Tai, M.D. and his wife, Rosa, of Alabama; two daughters, Grace Kolb and her husband, Mark, of Connecticut, and Karen Morency and her husband, Dan, of Freeport; and five grandchildren, Lee-Win Tai and Lee-Kai Tai, Amber Kolb, and Ian and Danielle Morency.