Hsu's father had studied in the United States. Henry Hsu competed internationally in numerous sports, including basketball and volleyball. He graduated from naval college, earned a law degree and later attended the U.S. Naval Training Center in Miami.
More than 6 feet tall, Hsu later boasted that he had been "the tallest man in the Chinese navy," one friend recalled.
Posted to Hong Kong during the Japanese attack in 1941, he helped hundreds of people escape, including British soldiers. In 1942 King George VI named him an honorary officer of the Order of the British Empire.
After the communist takeover of China in 1949, Hsu focused his business career on Hong Kong.
He invested in real estate and started a travel agency. That led him to the hotel business.
He was a majority shareholder in the luxurious Hotel Fortuna in Hong Kong, serving as chairman. He sold the hotel and other Hong Kong assets in 1981 and moved to Taiwan, telling a newspaper he feared what the communists would do after Britain handed over Hong Kong to China in 1997.
He had reason to distrust the Chinese government. He had done battle with it for decades in one area that was close to his heart: the Olympics.
In 1959, the International Olympic Committee, recognizing the rise of communist China, said Taiwanese athletes could no longer compete under the name China.
Hsu fought that decision and won, for a time. But in 1976, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who was close to Beijing, effectively excluded Taiwanese athletes from the Montreal Games.
In retaliation, Hsu abandoned an investment in Vancouver and vowed never to put money into Canadian properties, according to published reports -- a promise he has kept to this day.
Hsu, by then a member of the International Olympic Committee, took the extraordinary step of suing the Olympic movement in international court. Some IOC members wanted him removed, but Hsu's legal gambit helped force a compromise. In 1981, Taiwan and the IOC agreed to allow Taiwan to compete as "Chinese Taipei."
"Henry fought a distinguished and classy battle against pretty overwhelming odds for a number of years," said Dick Pound, a longtime IOC member from Canada.
Building churches
It was charity work that first connected Hsu to Los Angeles.
While living in Hong Kong, Hsu began attending services run by Evangelize China Fellowship, an interdenominational Christian group based in Monterey Park. Hsu later helped Evangelize China build a church in Hong Kong and orphanages around the world.
