Wheyting Chang Hampe

Wheyting Hampe was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India on December 21, 1930. After a brief illness, she passed away on May 20, 2023. With her were her daughter, Carrie Hampe, and her son, Carl Hampe. She was predeceased by her husband, Walter Hampe, who died in 2019. Her short time in the hospital was peaceful and serene.

Wheyting was the second of eight children. Her father, Zhang (Chang) Xiang Cheng, was at the time running the India branch of the family tea business. A dutiful daughter, she helped her mother, Li Chun Feng, raise the six remaining children. She attended St. Joseph's Convent school in Kalimpong, India, where she learned English. To her final days, she was notable for being a short Chinese woman who spoke English with a British accent.

Wheyting convinced her father to send her and her sister, Myotin Chang, to college in the United States. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology in 1952 from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. But the more important college event occurred in 1950, when she was assigned her biology lab partner for the semester – Walter Hampe. The two were made for each other. They were married in 1954, living in Germany where Walter was stationed shortly after the Korean War, and then living in Berkeley California. The couple returned to London and lived until 1960, when their son Carl was born. At this point, Wheyting issued the edict that the family was done galivanting in Europe and would return to California to settle down. 19 days later, they were on a ship headed for San Francisco.

Wheyting and Walter arrived in the Napa Valley in 1961, where Walter began a long career as a teacher and principal at St. Helena High School. Wheyting stayed at home and raised Carl and then Carrie, who was born in 1962, until Carrie turned five. Wheyting then resumed her profession as a medical lab technologist, part-time at first, in which she continued to work until 2003, when she retired at the age of 72. Work was not a passion for Wheyting, it was simply an essential daily task. She was always working, whether at her job, cleaning the house, reading medical textbooks, or cooking (both Western and Chinese food). She learned how to cook from her mother, and her cooking was a minor local legend. Dinners at the Hampe family were both a culinary event and sometimes, a contact sport. Banter was always on the menu, and Wheyting was an avid participant. New guests were sometimes disoriented by the raucous events, but many came back for seconds. In the movie version of these meals, Walter was the director (and provocateur in chief), and but Wheyting was the producer, because without her it would not have happened.

Indeed, Wheyting's role in life was that of catalyst. She convinced her father to send her to college in America in 1948, when England was still the preferred destination. She convinced her husband to start a new life in California in 1960. She persevered as a female Asian professional in the 1960s and 1970s, when the work-world challenges for her were significant. In 2017, at the age of 86, upon losing her beloved house on the Silverado Trail to the Atlas Fire, she said, "Walter, let's rebuild." She loved the new house that rose over the ashes. Conflict did not discourage her, it energized her.

Wheyting dearly loved her husband Walter (they were married for 65 years), her children Carl and Carrie, and her siblings and their families. She was nuts about her grandchildren – Davis, Marian and Margaret Hampe – although occasionally chastised them for not looking very Chinese. The blame for that rested with her daughter-in-law, Frances Hampe, whom she realized had made her son very lucky. That in fact was the theme of her final observations: she was incredibly lucky throughout her 92 years. She frequently said she could not have asked for more out of life. Her loved ones looked on in wonder and heartily agreed.

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