The passing of a friend is always hard. We consider all our dome customers our friends. In this case, John Zay was a very special friend. His smile came through his voice when you talked to him on the phone. His family wrote some very moving words of remembrance. You may click here to read them.

     In their words he was a "Man of peace, gentle spirit, compassionate listener, spiritual guide, musician, friend, gardener, son of Emma and John, lover of life and of nature, builder, Trappist monk, husband, dad, brother of Bob, Jim, and Tom, cancer survivor, chaplain, runner, dreamer creative craftsman, neighbor, lover of food, soul mate and best friend".

     He completed his earthly life as the sun rose on the morning of December 20th, 2004. He will be missed and forever loved by Mickey, Jessica, Jonathan, and Matthew.

     Bea Liu was one of our first dome customers in 1973. When she built her dome she was 65 years old but still retained that pioneer spirit she had exhibited earlier in her life. Her 10 meter diameter (33') high-profile dome served her well for many, many years. One item she built into her new dome was a Chinese "squatting" toilet.

     Bea Exner Liu was eighty-eight years old as her first book for adults was published. During the Japanese invasion of China from 1935 to 1945, Liu lived in China, worked as a teacher, and married a Chinese economist.

     Born and raised in Northfield, Minnesota, she graduated from Carleton College. Liu moved to China because teaching positions were scarce in the United States during the depression. The eventuality of a Communist take-over finally brought Bea and her family back to Minnesota.

     Liu says, "I have been writing all my life, but seldom got around to trying to get my writing published." Her book for children Little Wu and the Watermelons was published in the 1950s and won two awards.

     In addition to the memoir Remebering China, (1935-1945) Liu completed a novel about civilian life in China during the war, Down-River People , just before her death at ninety.