Born in New York, David V. Plymire spent much of his childhood in Huangyuan County, northwest China's Qinghai Province, before returning to the US at 18. Decades later, in 1987, a visit back inspired him to help improve medical care in the place he still calls home.

Over the years, he has helped raise funds for medical equipment worth more than six million yuan to be donated to Huangyuan, while also supporting local education. Now 95 and no longer able to travel back, Plymire stays in touch with his friends there by phone, keeping his lifelong bond with the place alive.