William Lauw-Zecha

Aristide William Lauw-Zecha (1899-1983), usually known as William Lauw-Zecha, was an Indonesian plantation owner, businessman; and – as an alumnus of the class of 1923 of Iowa University – he was the first Indonesian to graduate from an American university. He belonged to the Lauw-Sim-Zecha family, part of the 'Cabang Atas' gentry of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and is the father of the hotelier Adrian Lauw-Zecha, founder of Aman Resorts.

Biography Born in 1899 in Sukabumi, a hill station in the Preanger highlands of West Java, Lauw-Zecha was the son of Louis Tjeng Bie Lauw-Zecha, and a grandson of the landlord and bureaucrat Lauw Tek Lok, Luitenant der Chinezen of Bekasi by his Indo-Bohemian wife, Louisa Zecha. The posts of Kapitein and Luitenant der Chinezen were high-ranking civil government positions in the Dutch colonial bureaucracy. From 1911 onwards, Louis Lauw-Zecha also became the official distributor of Parker Pens, an American pen manufacturer, in the Dutch East Indies. During his time there, he was active in the Chinese Students' Alliance of Eastern States, U. S. A., and was elected as its executive councillor. Upon returning to the Indies, Lauw-Zecha helped manage the family's landholdings, businesses and continued to act as the distributor of Parker Pens.

Lauw-Zecha was married to Lim Kim See, a Malayan Chinese; together, the couple had five sons: Andrew, Allen, Adrian, Alwin and Austen Lauw-Zecha. As parents, the couple prioritised their sons' education, all of whom ended up pursuing their education, like their father, in the United States. Their fourth son Alwin, a Tufts alumnus of 1956, recalled his parents' comments: 'the only promise we are going to give you is that we will do our best to support you through the best formal education program that you each individually wish to pursue. Once you said you've had enough of studies, you are on your own.'

The family's large landholdings and businesses survived the Japanese occupation during World War II and the Indonesian revolution of 1945–1950. In 1956, however, Sukarno, the first President of newly independent Indonesia, nationalised many of the country's private assets, forcing William Lauw-Zecha and many of his relatives to move overseas. Lauw-Zecha settled down in Malaysia, where his wife originated, and died on July 6, 1983, in Kuala Lumpur.