Chin Huang Osmond

Our mom, Chin Huang Osmond, passed away on June 19, 2026.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Huang Huei-Wen and Huang Hsieh-Ping; three brothers, Huang Ming-Yee, Huang Lian-Tso, and Huang Min-Yuan; and her beloved husband, John Osmond. She leaves behind a family who adored her - her two daughters, Ranie (JR) Cropper and Karen Osmond; her granddaughters, Brenna (Habtamu) Hailu and Sydney Cropper; her sister, Ching-Mei (Michael) Gorman; her brothers, Huang Min-Lian and Huang Min-Chun; and many nieces and nephews.

Our mom was born on July 3, 1950, in Kaoshiung County, Taiwan, the fourth of seven children. She came from a very humble beginning—growing up in a one-room house with no running water. Hardship and responsibility were something that our mom experienced from the very beginning.

As a little girl, our mom was incredibly resourceful. She used to buy candy from the local store, bundle it with handwritten “fortunes” that included a chance to win extra pieces of candy, and resell them to neighborhood kids. She used the profits from her “candy business” to buy more candy to sell and necessities for her family.

Before she was even ten years old, our mom was sent to live with another family to work as a housemaid. But she missed her own mother so much that she would run away in the middle of the night and return home, only to be promptly sent back to continue earning money.

As an early teenager, she was placed with a medical doctor’s family to assist his wife. The doctor saw something special in our mom and began training her as a nurse. However, the home was hours away from her own, and not even the promise of a nursing career could keep our mom from the people she loved. She always put her family first.

In between stints in various households, our mom also worked in the fields with her father, gathering fruits, vegetables, and sugar cane for her family. Because of necessity and her desire to help her family, our mom was only able to attend school through the sixth grade.

By the time she turned 20, our mom was working in a local cafe and holding her first daughter, Ranie. Driven to build a secure life for her little girl, she started traveling back and forth to Hong Kong, buying high-demand items like jeans and bringing them back to resell in Taiwan.

By her mid-20s, our mom had saved enough money to buy two small, side-by-side houses—one for her and Ranie, and one for her parents. However, she changed her plans because she was determined to provide a better education for Ranie than Taiwan was able to provide for girls at the time. She traded both homes for a larger home, where her parents lived, and where her youngest brother still lives today. Years later, her father told her, “I don’t know what we would have done if you had not been born.”

In 1976, when she was 26, our mom married our dad, John Osmond, and moved to the United States with Ranie to join him. Three years later, their family of three became a family of four with the birth of their daughter, Karen. Our mom shared a beautiful, devoted life with our dad until he passed away in 2022.

After moving to the United States, our mom’s primary focus remained her family. She did whatever it took to support us - working as a maid, a school yard supervisor, and in various Chinese restaurants. She even started training to be an auto mechanic. Later in life, she found joy in visiting garage sales, estate sales, and thrift stores. She loved discovering treasures to enjoy and resell, and it made her genuinely happy to know that her finds brought joy to others.

Our mom was raised Buddhist; however, one night she had a dream telling her to “go to church.” Her understanding of English at the time was minimal, so when she woke up the next morning, she asked our dad, “What is church?” He brought her to the Episcopal church, the denomination in which he was raised. This began our mom’s lifelong journey of getting to know Christ and living the life He intended for her.

One of our mom’s greatest gifts was her ability to make the best out of what she had. She fixed—or attempted to fix—things that would benefit our family. She sometimes affectionately referred to herself as “MacGyver” because she could find a solution to any problem. She also had an uncanny intuition - always knowing exactly what advice we needed to hear and when we needed to hear it. And she was fiercely protective of our family. She was never afraid to stand up for us, even if it meant confronting someone twice her size or shooing them away with a broom.

Our mom pushed both of us to study hard, work hard, and strive to be our best. More importantly, she taught us to be independent and self-sufficient. She wanted us to achieve more than she thought she could in her own lifetime. Ironically, no matter how hard we try, we will never be able to accomplish what our mom did.

When her granddaughters, Brenna (1998) and Sydney (2001), were born, our mom stepped into the role of a devoted and loving grandmother. She instilled the same core values in her grandchildren and took great pleasure in spoiling them. Brenna and Sydney adored their grandmother and were fortunate enough to spend a large portion of their lives with her - listening to her stories, learning from her experiences, and benefiting from the wisdom she shared.

It is impossible to fully capture who our mom was in these paragraphs. In the culture she was raised in, women were taught to be meek and compliant; however, our mom broke the mold from the very beginning. She was sharp, innovative, intuitive, outspoken, loving, loyal, fearless, protective, and fierce.

While we question what we will do without her, we know that she has fully served God’s purpose for her here on earth, instilled her values in her children and grandchildren, and has given us everything we need to continue without her. Words cannot express how much we will miss our mother and grandmother, but we are glad that she can finally rest in eternal peace. Until we see you again, Mom, we love you.

A service to celebrate Chin’s life will be held at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church (7521 South Old State Road, Lewis Center, Ohio 43035) on June 30, 2026, at 10:30 a.m., with a reception following the service.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Stover Lab Research Fund:

Online: https://giveto.osu.edu/makeagift/details/316758

Checks may be mailed to: The Ohio State University Foundation P.O. Box 736096 Chicago, IL 60673-6096 (Please include the fund information in the memo line.)

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