Ronald A. "Ron" Chew (b. 1953) was born in Settle, 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.

In May 1993 a new permanent exhibit, "One Song, Many Voices," opened at the WLAM, illuminating the Northwest experiences of 10 Asian Pacific groups. In this photo, WLAM director Ron Chew stands in the exhibit, near a poster instructing Japanese Americans how to report for removal and incarceration during World War II.

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
Caption information source: "Living History - Museum unveils uniqe centerpiece: a gift showcasing lives of Asians in American," Seattle Times, May 3, 1993, p. B1.