Nathan Louie shows off his bobblehead figure in front of the California Theatre in downtown San Jose on March 3, 2020. (Sal Pizarro/Bay Area News Group)

The following is an excerpt from the 02/08/25 SJ Mercury News:

By Sal Pizarro, Bay Area News Group

Everyone who knew Nathan Louie probably has a dozen stories they could tell about him. I’ve been thinking about many of mine this week since I learned that the retired teacher — a San Francisco native and longtime San Jose resident — died last week at age 84. I don’t know that I’ve ever met anyone who radiated joy quite the same way.

Louie — who had a long career teaching at Briarwood and Monticello elementary schools — wasn’t one to take retirement sitting down, though you could sometimes find him relaxing on the porch of his gorgeous museum-like home on South 15th Street in San Jose’s Naglee Park neighborhood. It was easy to tell which house was his when he wasn’t there, too: A marble bust of Louie held a place of honor in the front yard, along with Chinese foo dog statues and an ornate lamppost.

He volunteered for many causes, including the Cinequest film festival, the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project and the Silicon Valley Asian Pacific Film Festival. And he was always dressed to impress. Sometimes he’d be in a Chinese opera costume or imperial robes greeting Cinequest audiences at the California Theatre or he might be in a sparkling tuxedo for National Night Out in St. James Park. He even had his own bobblehead figure.

Longtime friend Gerrye Wong and a number of his other friends visited Louie for his 84th birthday party during the Year of the Dragon last June at Sunrise of Cupertino, an assisted living facility where Louie had moved after his health began to take a downturn. She recalled his immense generosity and indefatigable spirit.

He was born in the year of the dragon and once gifted her with a large wooden statue of a dragon from his home collection when she visited him. Another time, he gave her a glass dragon pendant necklace to remember him. “A true gentlemen dragon friend,” she said. “Never to be forgotten for his love of life, glamor and glitz which is just what his personality was like.”

While I would see Louie at various events, it was always a treat to see him on opening night of Cinequest. I was initially embarrassed whenever he would stand with me and proudly announce my arrival to the crowd waiting in line, but that was Nathan being Nathan and I learned to lean into his world. He was one of a kind, and he will be missed.