The Valley Intruder : PETER PAN : San Francisco, Aug. 17

“I can fly,” Peter Pan told new acquaintances with a straight face when repeatedly quizzed about the similarity between his name and that of the story book character.

Pan, 66, who was born in Taiwan, attended the Wharton School in Philadelphia. He returned to Taiwan and worked for a railroad firm and later moved to Hong Kong, where he opened an import-export business.

Peter and Barbara Pan immigrated to California 16 years ago.

He enjoyed gardening. “He told me it was meditation for him,” a friend said.

‘Got Along Well’

Pan “was the first to arrive for work in the morning . . . was a hard-worker who did his job without complaint and got along well with co-workers,” his boss said.

He kept a photograph of his 3-year-old granddaughter on his desk.

During the night of Aug. 17, an intruder entered the Pans’ home in the Lakeside District of San Francisco through an unlocked window.

Pan and his wife, 64, were both shot in the head. They were found the next morning by one of their three children, who stopped by for a visit. Pan had died of his wounds. His wife, a bank clerk, is in stable condition at San Francisco General Hospital, where for 16 years her husband worked as an accountant.

“He was very proud to be an American,” a friend said. “He always talked about how valuable freedom is.”

He added: “He was a pacifist. He hated violence.”