Shih Fu (S.F.) Chen was born in Sichuan province, China in 1899. From 1914 to 1922 he attended Tsing Hua, during which period he and several fellow students, including S. Y. Liu, agitated for reforms of the college board of trustees, compiling a pamphlet titled “Chedi fanteng de Tsing Hua geming,” 徹底翻騰的清華革命, or, “A Tsing Hua Revolution that Will Turn Things Completely Upside Down,” to press their demands (Ouyang). He graduated from Tsing Hua in 1922 and that fall went to Clark University to study history, but after one semester he transferred to Grinnell for Spring 1923. Meanwhile, in Fall 1922 a whole group of Tsing Hua alumni—T. H. Cheng, S. Y. Liu, J. P. Shen, and K. C. Tsai—arrived at Grinnell. Together with K. C. Wu, T. C. Chao, and C. M. Chang, who had arrived one year earlier, they formed a very visible Tsing Hua cohort on the Grinnell campus. 

While at Grinnell Chen participated in dramatic productions, acting not just on campus (SB 02/06/1924) but also in a play titled “On Trial” staged by the local Baptist church in 1924 (GH 4/15/1924). He also participated in Chinese students’ initiatives, such as their 1923 and 1924 celebrations of the founding of the Republic of China, and of the Chinese New Year in 1924 (SB 02/06/1924). He graduated from Grinnell with a bachelor’s degree in economics and sociology in 1924.  

While a Grinnell student Chen also attended summer schools at the University of Colorado and the University of Wisconsin. After Grinnell he went to Columbia University for graduate work. He joined the reunion dinner of Grinnellians in New York City to see off Sin Chen, who attended Grinnell in Fall 1923 but transferred to Columbia after one semester (SB 03/25/1925). Chen earned a master’s degree from Columbia no later than 1928.  

After his return to China in 1928, Chen worked as Professor of History and English at Central Political University in Nanjing. He became Professor of Law and the Dean of the Law School at Sichuan University in 1942 and after World War II Dean of Academics at National Central Political University. In 1950 he and his family moved to Hong Kong following the Chinese Communist party’s founding of the People’s Republic of China. He taught at the University of Hong Kong. In 1953 he moved to Taiwan and worked for the Nationalist government in various official positions. He passed away in Taiwan in 1979 (National Academy for Education Research).