I first became friends with Damon in the 1st grade at Glen Park Elementary. As a very small Chinese kid in a predominantly Black & Hispanic school, I was picked on quite often. Damon did his best to always protect me from the bullies. Over the next 4 years, Damon was always at my house and we shared a lot of laughs over cartoons, playing video games or with my action figures. We went on the March of Dimes SuperWalk together in 1979 before we both headed to James Denman middle school. Here we drifted slightly as we found new friends. Sadly, and I often tear up thinking about this to this day, we drifted further at Lowell as he hung out in the Cafeteria w/ the other football players and I loitered on the front lawn near 26th Avenue. But even during those 4 years at Lowell, we never once passed each other in the hall without saying "What's up?" or "Sup man, how's it going?" to each other. I was so sad when I heard he passed away in a car accident (either during our college years or right after). The greatest thing about our friendship was that I didn't see him as black and he didn't see me as Chinese ... we just liked to hang out and have fun together. If anyone knows how to reach his parents or younger sister, I would like to connect with them. Thank you.
John Chin
I first became friends with Damon in the 1st grade at Glen Park Elementary. As a very small Chinese kid in a predominantly Black & Hispanic school, I was picked on quite often. Damon did his best to always protect me from the bullies. Over the next 4 years, Damon was always at my house and we shared a lot of laughs over cartoons, playing video games or with my action figures. We went on the March of Dimes SuperWalk together in 1979 before we both headed to James Denman middle school. Here we drifted slightly as we found new friends. Sadly, and I often tear up thinking about this to this day, we drifted further at Lowell as he hung out in the Cafeteria w/ the other football players and I loitered on the front lawn near 26th Avenue. But even during those 4 years at Lowell, we never once passed each other in the hall without saying "What's up?" or "Sup man, how's it going?" to each other. I was so sad when I heard he passed away in a car accident (either during our college years or right after). The greatest thing about our friendship was that I didn't see him as black and he didn't see me as Chinese ... we just liked to hang out and have fun together. If anyone knows how to reach his parents or younger sister, I would like to connect with them. Thank you.