Ted Fang, a prominent newspaper publisher and former publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, has died at 61 years old, reportedly of natural causes.
Fang, son of immigrants from Taiwan John Ta Chuan Fang and Florence Fang, continued his parents’ legacy in media after the family purchased the Examiner in 2000 — a landmark negotiation that gave the Fangs a $66 million stipend in exchange for $100 from the family, according to SFGATE. He was among the first AAPI and openly LGBTQ+ professionals in the industry.
The Fang family-owned Chinatown’s largest restaurant after John Fang arrived in the U.S. “penniless,” to borrow phrasing from SFGATE. The Fangs quickly established a philanthropic tradition.
California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis mourned Ted Fang’s death, writing that he was a friend and giving him credit for his community work as director of his mother’s farm and during the AIDS crisis of the 1990s. Ted Fang advocated for health awareness as co-founder of San Francisco Hep B Free — men who have sex with men make up one of the many groups susceptible to the disease, according to the Hepatitis B Foundation.
“(Fang) was a friend and passed far too soon, but I am heartened that his legacy of courage and service to his community will live on,” Kounalakis wrote.
Ted Fang is survived by his husband Tony Thompson and his mother Florence Fang. The other two Fang brothers, Douglas and James, died in 2003 and 2020. Douglas Fang has two living children, Sean and Alison.
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.
Happy Lunar New Year. Please support our Lunar New Year $5,000 matching grant challenge. A generous donor is matching dollar for dollar every donation through February 16 up to $5,000. All donations will go toward fully funding an editor position at AsAmNews. You can make your tax deductible donations here via credit card, debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Venmo. Stock donations and donations via DAF are also welcomed.
Please also follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and X.
