Lieutenant Governor David Lam

I didn't mention one of my other famous family members, great-uncle David.  He was actually the 25th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, the second non-white to hold the position and the first Asian Canadian in that position.  Basically, the Lieutenant Governor acts roughly like what we would associate as a governor and is a direct representative of the Queen of England/Canada.  When Queen Elizabeth visits Canada and specifically British Columbia, he was on her list, and had hosted several dinners for her at the Governor's mansion.  Sadly he died about 2 years ago, but I was able to meet him a few times before then.  He had a fascinating story of immigrating to Canada after WWII and his "rags to riches" journey is remarkable.  I believe there is a biography or documentary on him.

One interesting story my dad told me about Uncle David's period as lieutenant governor was that Uncle David owned a special Lexus.  The Lexus itself was not special, but the license plates on it were.  Uncle David told my dad that these allowed him to park wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted.  And so, during a family reunion, my dad had to pick up his sister and borrowed Uncle David's Lexus to do it.  Now as we know, it's not exactly permitted for one to park in the no-parking zone in front of the terminal at the airport, but since dad had these fancy license plates, he figured he'd test the system to see if Uncle David was actually right.  So he parked right in front of the terminal.  Soon enough, the Royal Mounted Police came up behind him and an officer stepped out of his car, pen and citation book in hand.  The way dad tells it, he came around the back of the Lexus, already writing down the preliminaries, took one glance at the plate... and walked away.  Oh yes, it was good to be governor.

Fascinating man, wish I had had more time learn from him.  Here he is on the left, and below is his coat of arms, which I think is really awesome.  I need a coat or arms.