Background
Mr. Kwauk was born in Chaoyang, Liaoning, China, on April 18, 1884.
Mr. Kwauk was born in Chaoyang, Liaoning, China, on April 18, 1884.
Kwauk Z. U. entered St. John's College (later St. John's University), Shanghai, at eleven and graduated in 1903. In 1910 he went to England and entered Sheffield University, studying electrical and mechanical engineering and graduating from both courses in 1913. Mr. Kwauk won first prizes in workshop practice, tool design, electric laboratory work, efficiency engineering during his three years in the University.
Following graduation, Kwauk Z. U. taught English at the Kiangnan Arsenal School in Shanghai. Mr. Kwauk later became a master in the Shanghai Municipal Public School for Chinese. He was a teacher of English and natural science at St. John's College from 1906 to 1910. Mr. Kwauk joined River Don Works of Messrs. Vickers and the Phoenix Works of Messrs. Steel, Peech & Tozer as student engineer.
He travelled extensively in England and U.S.A., visited chief iron and steel plants of the two countries in 1915. Kwauk Z. U. returned to China in the same year. He served as a chief of the Engineering Department of the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works of the Han-Yeh-Ping Co. between 1915 and 1923 and was appointed engineer-in-chief and assistant superintendent of the Tayeh Works of the Han-Yeh-Ping Co. in 1928. Mr. Kwauk joined the Shanghai-Nanjing and Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo Railways as district engineer to look after the district between Shanghai and Hangzhou in 1925 and did much to maintain the line in good and serviceable condition during the years of civil warfare from 1925 till 1927.
In 1929 Mr. Kwauk was appointed director of the Shanghai Arsenal by the National Government in Nanjing, and continued to serve
in this capacity until August, 1931, when he was made managing director of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway and Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo Railway. Kwauk Z. U. was elected member of the Board of Directors for the Reorganization of the Peking-Hankou Railway in April, 1931.
From 1932 to 1938 he held the position of a Director of the Central Mint. Since 1933 Mr. Kwauk was a director of the Hwa Yih Bank in Shanghai.