Wing Luke was born near Guangzhou, China in 1925. His family immigrated to Seattle in 1931 and opened a laundry in the International District. Wing Luke graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Law. In 1962, Wing Luke became the first Chinese-American elected to the Seattle City Council. His political focus was on civil rights, urban renewal, and historic preservation. Wing Luke died in 1965, at the age of 40, when he and two friends were returning from a fishing trip. The small plane they were flying in crashed in the Cascade Mountains.