Renate Shang

Just before sunrise on the morning of October 30th, 2021, Renate Shang went to join her beloved husband David at the age of 87. She was born Margot Ursula Renate Albrecht in 1934, to her loving parents Johann Heinrich Albrecht and Marie Ida Albrecht, née Agotz in Leipzig, Germany. Escaping the Russian occupation a few years after World War II, she and her family settled in Frankfurt, Germany. She then emigrated to New York City in 1957, becoming Renate M. U. Albrecht. In 1959 she met and married David C.T. Shang, and subsequently gave birth to three sons, Allan, Bryan, and Warren, whom they raised together in Owego, NY.

Renate, or Rena, was a woman of many talents; a well-known Asian art collector and expert on Oriental antiques, a lover of opera and classical music, an avid sports fan, a philanthropist and teacher, an amazing cook, and most of all, a devoted wife and mother. Many from our hometown will remember her for the Chinese cooking classes she taught, or her old antiques store, The Goat Boy. Her friends will remember her for her eternal sense of optimism, her natural generosity, her hearty unfettered laugh and her boundless appetite for life. She would cheer on the racers at Wake County Speedway Friday night, crochet blankets for charity Saturday afternoon, attend the NC Symphony Saturday evening, and participate in services at the St. Andrews United Methodist Church Sunday morning.

She is preceded in passing by her father Heinrich, mother Ida, brother Han Jochen, and her husband David. She leaves behind her three sons, two stepsons Moses and Paul, sister-in-law Dina and many grandchildren, grandnieces, grandnephews and great grandchildren. She will be interred together with David and her parents at the Evergreen Cemetery in Owego, NY in a private family service sometime in the Spring of 2022.

In lieu of flowers, we ask that donations/checks be made out to the Ming Hsien Foundation and sent to: The David Shang Memorial Library c/o The Ming Hsien Foundation,
311 High Gables Dr, #407, Gaithersburg, MD 20878.

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