Gordon J. Lau (1941-98)
Gordon J. Lau Elementary School (950 Clay Street, San Francisco)
Gordon J. Lau was born in Hawai'i and moved to San Francisco during his high school days. He later became a lawyer and civil rights pioneer fighting housing and unemployment issues. He was the first Chinese American elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and the second Asian American appointed to be a supervisor. From 1981 to 1988, Mayor Dianne Feinstein appointed him to serve as chair of the San Francisco Shanghai Sister City Committee. To honor his contributions to San Francisco and the Chinese American community, the Commodore Stockton School (formerly the Oriental School) was renamed to be the Gordon J. Lau Elementary School.
(Portrait by Joyce Bantugan, SFSU 2020)