Engineer Makes Himself Heard--at Work and on Playing Field

Being unable to hear has never been much of a problem for Steve Fung, either while streaking across a Long Beach rugby field, or working as a space shuttle engineer.

Fung has met success wherever he has gone since arriving from Hong Kong 10 years ago. Now, at 27, he has gone to Philadelphia, where he is enrolled as the first deaf person at the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton Business School.

In addition to studying the next two years to become a professor and an expert in foreign investment, he will play on Wharton’s rugby team.

While living in Long Beach the past three years, Fung played on the Belmont Shore Rugby Football Club, one of the nation’s top rugby teams.

He played rugby at Santa Clara University and was named the most valuable player of the 1986 National Sports Festival at Daytona Beach, Fla.

“Being deaf has not been too much of a handicap, because in rugby one can follow most of the action before their eyes,” Fung said before leaving for Wharton, adding with a grin: “It has even helped me in some cases, when the referee may be less inclined to blow the whistle on me.”

Fung, who does not know sign language, has never used an interpreter. He reads lips and talks in a raspy tone that is hard to understand at first.

“On the field he would make noises to let you know where he was,” said Jon Finstuen, a Belmont Shore player. “At first it was hard to get used to (his voice) but now we can carry on a conversation without missing a beat.”

Fung, who is 5 feet 6 and weighs 140 pounds, is a quick, aggressive tackler in a sport dominated by huge men.

“He put his body on the line as much as anyone,” said Finstuen. “He was inspirational on and off the field. His attitude is super. He never let his disability bother him. He seems to succeed with everything he does. A lot of it is hard work, and he’s also a bright guy.”

Fung, who has a degree in physics, worked from 1988 until this summer at Rockwell International in Downey, where he coordinated space shuttle guidance, navigation and control flight software systems with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Lockheed and IBM. In September, 1989, he was named the company’s engineer of the month.

He decided to switch to business because he found physics “too narrow-minded” and also to fulfill a longtime desire of following his father, a Wharton alumnus.

During his tenure at Rockwell, Fung also took business courses at Pepperdine University.

While growing up in Hong Kong, Fung said he was often exposed to the world of business.

“Even while I was reading (a book) for an English class, my father would teach me the meaning of liquidity, liability and equity,” he said. “His business associates from all over the world came to eat at our dining table.”

Fung became deaf at age 2 after contracting meningitis, a disease of the spinal cord.

“I am classified as prelingually deaf,” he said. “That is, when I became sick and then deaf, I lost all my memory and language capabilities, and had to start all over. I was able to lip-read by the age of 2 1/2 due to my mother and perseverance.”

He wanted to major in business at Santa Clara, but his mother pushed him into physics. “She could not envision how a deaf person could succeed in a business world that requires communications skills,” he said.

But his mother helped develop his vocabulary well beyond that of the average deaf adult.

“The relative strength of my word usage comes from the amount of reading that I did, and also because my mother taught me a certain number of words every day,” he said.

Fung is active in disability issues--he has campaigned for interstate telephone relay services for the deaf, and is involved with the Alexander Graham Bell Assn. for the Deaf, an organization that believes in mainstreaming and oral communication for deaf people.

“He’s going to do big things for deaf people and for business in general,” said Finstuen, his former rugby teammate. “He’s someone you should keep an eye on.”

* Don Hansen has resigned as a member of the Bellflower Unified School District board. Hansen, who is moving to Cathedral City, has held a number of positions while with the school district for 36 years, including teacher and union leader. He has been a board member the past six years.

* H. Delano Roosevelt of Long Beach, grandson of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, has been elected to the board of directors of the Second Harvest Foodbank of Greater South Bay, a nonprofit organization that feeds the needy. Roosevelt is also chairman of the Long Beach Solid Waste Management and Recycling Committee.

* Joe M. Rivera of Walnut has been named division manager for Southern California Gas Co.’s central division, which covers the Southeast area. Rivera will oversee more than 900 employees serving a 26-city area.

* Ruth R. Aldaco, a Commerce city councilwoman, has been named to the new Los Angeles County Children’s Planning Council. The 27-member council was established to evaluate the effectiveness of children’s programs in the county.