The Power of a Google Search: Apparently My Dad is Famous in Taiwan...

...or at least mentioned in a book.

這一趟迪士尼之旅，卻意外地開啟了方國健與戴爾電腦接下來長達11年的關係。一位方國健過去熟識的老友迪恩‧錢德勒（Dean Chandler），當時剛從美國慧智（Wyse）加入戴爾，負責採購業務，邀方國健到位於德州奧斯汀（Austin）的戴爾總部敘舊，聊聊他選擇戴爾的原因與想法，並在方國健回台灣後，詢問一些關於台灣廠商報價 的問題。 1

If you're having trouble reading the above post, so am I. I'm having even more trouble figuring out exactly what it is. 

Several years back I did a google search of my father's name, Dean Chandler.  My father passed away over 10 years ago when I was just 20 years old.  He died before I really got to know him as adult.  Therefore, there's a constant feeling like I never really got to know him.  So any little tidbit which reveals who he was means a lot to me.

This led me to do a google search, and it came up with about eight websites from Taiwan featuring the above paragraph. My dad lived in Austin, and previously worked at Wyse. So this most likely is referencing him.

I decided to use an online translator to discover what truths this text has to say about my father. 

Using babel fish.com in traditional Chinese I got this.

This enlightens travel of the gentleman Nepal, actually accidentally has opened Fang Kuochien and the Dell computer receives 11 years relations. Fang Kuochien knew well in the past old friend 迪恩 □Chandler (Dean Chandler), just (Wyse) joined Dell at that time from the American bright wisdom, was responsible to purchase the service, invites Fang Kuochien arrived to Texas Austin (Austin) the Dell headquarters to talk about old days, chats he to choose Dell the reason and the idea, and returned to Taiwan after Fang Kuochien, inquired some about the Taiwan merchant quoted price question. Looked in the passing friendship, the experience which as well as the past worked, Fang Kuochien then has been half year 義工 for Dell, investigated some Taiwan merchant product quoted price, finally and therefore officially joined Dell in 1990. At that time Dell only is listed 8th PC Corporation, nearly nobody regarded as it is the pivotal company. The Dell Taiwan numbers the first staff

That makes a bit more sense. Since my curiosity was still running a bit wild, I decided to do a search on Fang Kuochien and found this segment of an article:

Dell was founded in 1984 and will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. The company opened a purchasing office in Taiwan in 1990 under the leadership of Fang Kuo-chien, and in just over one decade has become a global leader in the PC industry. 

So what do we learn...

The leader of the purchasing office in Taiwan ( 方國健 or Fang Kuo-chien or Max Fang) knew my father, as an old friend. Around the year 1990, my father and Max worked together to form the Taiwan office of Dell.


Even more fascinating, Fang Kuo-chien, has apperently written a book about his time at Dell. This paragraph is an excerpt from the book.  So my dad is forever immortalized in a book about the history of Dell in Taiwan which is only in Chinese.  


If he ever came to Austin, as the segment seems to indicate, then I probably met him. Very interesting stuff...