SHIRLEY TONG PAROLA

Shirley Tong Parola, nee Gum Look Tong, daughter of Tim Tong and Wong Buck Wan passed from our lives November 16, 2022. She was the Golden Sixth Tong daughter born in Tong-ka village near Canton, China in 1933. After the family’s return to Hawaii in 1939, Shirley attended Kauluwela Elementary, Stephenson Jr. High and Roosevelt High School. After earning a B.A. at U.H. Manoa, she returned to UHM for a fifth year Teaching Certificate. Shirley and husband Gene returned to Hawaii in 2000. In the interim she had acquired an M.A. in Education and all but the desertion qualifications for the PhD, and had become a senior English Instructor and Curriculum advisor for Flint Community School system, Flint, Michigan. Shirley also partnered with her daughter to open two Hawaiian fusion restaurants in Ann Arbor and co-authored an award-winning cookbook, Remembering Diamond Head, Remembering Hawai’i, A Cookbook Memoir of Hawai’i and its Foods.
Shirley was the last of a family of prominent daughters: Carrie (Mrs. Edward) Dang, Mary (Mrs. Hinny) Tom, Fanny (Mrs. Sanford) Wong, Lily (Mrs. B.S.) Chen, and Florence (Mrs. Frank) Loo. One brother, Abraham (Mrs. Peggy) Tong, is also deceased. Shirley was the wife of Gene J. Parola, a retired university professor.
Shirley is survived by children, Lisa P. Gaynier, Claudia Parola Osborn, A. Todd and M. Brooks Parola. All live on the mainland.