Ronald A. "Ron" Chew (b. 1953) was born in Seattle, the son of Chinese immigrants who worked in the restaurant and garment industries in Seattle’s Chinatown International District (CID). Chew attended Franklin High School and University of Washington (UW), leaving UW in 1975 to pursue community-based journalism. Chew was a reporter for, then editor of, the CID newspaper International Examiner, working there until 1988.

Chew became involved in a number of labor and social justice organizations in Seattle, and in 1990, organized the Chinese Oral History Project of Seattle. The project became a traveling exhibit and led to his being recruited in 1991 as the new director for the struggling Wing Luke Asian Museum (WLAM). Under Chew, WLAM became an award-winning center, using collaborative projects with region’s Asian/ Pacific Islander communities to highlight the stories of ordinary people, personalizing larger social, political and economic events. Chew left WLAM in 2008, after leading a successful capital campaign to purchase and renovate the East Kong Yick building on S. King Street as the museum's new home.

This photo shows Ron Chew at the Wing Luke in January 1992, shortly after assuming the position of executive director.

Caption information source: "Ron Chew," article at Univeristy of Washington Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, retrieved at http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/chew.htm