Yan Fang

April 29, 1963 - March 28, 2016

Yan Fang passed away peacefully at her home in Butte in the evening of March 28, 2016, surrounded by her family. Yan valiantly battled colon cancer, and she lives on in victory with her Lord, Jesus Christ. She was born in China April 29, 1963, to Zhongxian Fang and Fengpo Xu. She received her education in China and on February 18, 1988, she married Xiaobing Zhou. They moved to Butte in August of 2005. Yan worked as a kindergarten teacher for one year before going to college. She graduated in 1986 from the Geology Department of Shenyang Institute of Gold Technology, specializing in Mineral Prospecting. After graduation, she worked in a chemical analysis lab of a gold prospecting institute, analyzing gold samples for gold content. In 1991, she joined her husband and worked as a technician in a material lab of Southwestern Institute of Physics in Chengdu, Sichuan, China until 1998. In October 1998, she moved to Fairbanks of Alaska, joining her husband while he completed his PhD degree there. Yan worked as a full-time mom till 2007 when she finally got the permit from the US government to work legally. From July 2007, Yan worked as a full-time, regular Laboratory Technician with MSE Technology Application, Inc. (MSE-TA) until December 2012, when she was totally disabled by her serious health condition. Yan is survived by her husband Xiaobing Zhou of Butte, son, Daoning Zhou of Ohio, and daughter Marlene Zhou of Butte. Also surviving are her mother Fengpo Xu, her brothers, Yunli and Yunpei Fang and Xiaobing's family: Huiyun Zhou, Guiyan Zhou, Qingyuan Zhou, Yaohua Zhou, Liangbing Zhou, Wenbing Zhou and Luoming Zhou, and many cousins all of China.