Effie Y. H. Chen, passed away peacefully on February 20, 2026, with family by her side. Effie was born in Chiaohsi, Taiwan in 1935 and was one of eight siblings.

Effie attended Shi Da University in Taipei and briefly taught middle school in Taipei after graduating. She met her husband James Chen while teaching. They both shared the dream of graduate study in the U.S. and they became engaged shortly before James left to begin a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. Effie moved from Taiwan to Philadelphia in 1958 to attend Drexel University, where she received two master's degrees, in Nutrition and in Library Science. Effie and James married in 1959 and during the early years of their marriage she completed her graduate studies while James completed his PhD.

Effie was a resident of Princeton since the late 1960s. She worked for over 25 years at Princeton University as a librarian in the Gest Collection and Firestone Library. In her retirement, she found fulfillment in travel, gardening, and the joys of becoming a grandmother.  Multilingual throughout her life, Effie moved naturally between Taiwanese, Japanese, and Mandarin, often in a single conversation. She even dabbled in some German and French in her later years.

Effie shared her love of good food and cooking with her family. Her dumpling nights with her grandchildren will forever be fondly remembered. Despite being separated by distance and time, she maintained deep lifelong ties with her siblings, nieces, nephews, and childhood friends in Taiwan, while continuing to form new friendships in the Princeton community into her 90s.

Effie will be deeply missed by her family. She is survived by her daughters and sons-in-law, Audrey Chen, Bernice Chen (Scott Alcott), and Clarice Chen (Brian Edgecombe); her grandchildren, Gavin Alcott, Zoe Alcott, Avery Peterson, Seamus Edgecombe, and Quinn Edgecombe; her sisters Shizu Chen and Getusubai Ju; her brother and sister-in-law Jeff and Yoko Chen; and many other in-laws, nieces, and nephews. Effie was predeceased by James, her husband of 44 years; her eldest grandson, Jeremy Peterson; her sisters Ann Hsu, Bi Lan, and Su Lan; and brothers Keiyu Chuang and Shigai Chuang.

The family is planning a celebration of Effie's life on Friday, July 10th at Palmer House in Princeton.  In lieu of flowers, donations in Effie's memory may be made to https://penndentalmedicine.org/give/. Memorial notifications may be sent to the family at effiegekka@hotmail.com.