Kam C. Wong

Kam Chooi (KC) Wong, 66, died peacefully on October 20, 2024 at the Lemay Avenue Health and Rehabilitation Facility in Fort Collins, Colorado, with her husband, Kurt, at her side. She was a bright, cheerful and independent person, who brought wit, laughter and her wonderful smile to her many friends and who was willing to speak up when she saw something amiss. She loved people, gardening, running, camping, hiking, travel, and cooking and sharing wonderful meals with family and friends. KC also enjoyed challenging herself. She enjoyed experimenting with an eclectic variety of cuisines, as well as introducing others to traditional Chinese and Malay dishes. She hiked to the summit of 33 of the 54 fourteen-thousand foot peaks in Colorado and to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, traveled to 5 continents, and ran and completed a marathon, two half-marathons, and numerous 5K and 10K races. KC was born on September 30, 1958 in Kampar, Malaysia to Sum Wong and Fook Sun Yip. She attended primary school at the Anglo-Chinese School in Kampar, and secondary school at the Petaling Gardens Girls Secondary School and the Sultan Abdul Samad School in the Kuala Lumpur area. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with honors at the University of Bradford, England and a PhD degree in Computer Science from the Open University in England. After her PhD, KC was a member of the computer science faculty at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. While at CSU, she met and married Kurt Michael Olender in 1989. In 1991, she joined Colorado Memory Systems as a software engineer. After CMS was acquired by Hewlett Packard Company, she continued with HP. While there, she was a co-inventor on 3 United States patents. She retired from HP in 2012, and after some time off, took a position with EMC Corporation in Louisville, Colorado. She left EMC to fully retire in 2016. KC was preceded in death by her parents and brothers Kam Wah and Kam Khow. She is survived by her husband Kurt; brothers Kam Yee, Khun, and Kam Peng; sisters Kum Lan, Kam Chu, and Kam Meei; and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. A celebration of life will be held at a later date.