Page created by: Kevin Tao

Mariano Tao (The Professor), 84, passed away on December 17, 2022 after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease.

Mariano was born on March 3, 1938 to Too Bong Hua and Kho Siu Hua in Davao City, Philippines. After graduating top honors from Davao Chinese High School, he later finished his degree in Chemical Engineering at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan and then his PhD of Biochemistry at the University of Washington. He published many pivotal papers including doing significant work on cyclic AMP and protein phosphorylation. He finished his career tenured at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine.

In the 1960s he met his wife Pearl Koh and went on to have 2 children, Stephen and Kevin. Pearl died at the age of 58 on September 5th, 2002 from Alzheimer’s disease.

Mariano is survived by his second wife, Surong Qu (Step-daughter Evelyn), his son Stephen (grandchildren Dylan and Alec), and his son Kevin (grandchildren Karina, Kamryn, & Kaden).

Mariano loved golfing, fishing, playing mahjong, shooting pool, throwing darts, and bowling…all the classic, old man sports. He enjoyed a good Manhattan or pina colada.

Services will be held at Beidelman-Kunsch Funeral Home on January 5th 2023. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation to help fund research for Parkinson’s Disease. As a researcher himself, Mariano would have appreciated this gesture.