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Draft:Tim Tran

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Early Life

Nguyen Dinh Muu and Nguyen Thi Noi got married in 1946 in the small coastal village of Ho Doi, which existed along the Red River Delta in the Thai Binh province’s Thuy An district[1]. During this time Vietnam was in a state of instability, with France and the Viet Minh, a Vietnamese nationalist organization, clashing[2]. This instability led to Dinh Muu leaving behind Noi Thi to join the Viet Minh[3]. After spending some time as a part of the Viet Minh, Dinh Minh left due to their Communist views[4]. He moved to Hanoi and changed his name to Tran Duy Tinh. Duy Tinh occasionally returned to Thi Noi in their village, Ho Doi, which led to the birth of Tran Manh Khiem, or Tim, in 1950. Tim lived with his mother until the age of four when his father called for him and his mother to meet him at the port of Haiphong in 1954. Together they embarked on a boat headed for Saigon, but disembarked in Nha Trang[1].

They lived in a refugee camp in Nha Trang for one year before they rented a house. They lived there for two years, 1954 through 1956, with Khiem’s little sister, Than Binh, being born in 1955. Then, Duy Tinh, Khiem’s dad, got a job in Tây Ninh, so the family relocated there. There they lived in an apartment and Khiem gained a second little sister, Xuan Thao. During the years there Khiem was tutored by his father and started elementary school[1]. In 1958, the family moved to Saigon after Duy Tinh got a job with the Joint General Staff of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, which was the South Vietnamese army[5]. In the big city, Khie attended Truong Minh Giang Elementary School. During his time at elementary school, he gained three more siblings, brothers Khoi and Khoa in 1958 and 1959 respectively, and sister Mai in 1961[1].

Education

After going to elementary school, Khiem scored very high on the high school entrance exam and got into one of the best high school's in Saigon, Chu Văn An High School[6]. While there, he also received a number of scholarships, the South Vietnamese Ministry of Education National Scholarship, in his sophomore year and a scholarship from Vietnamese students studying in Christchurch, New Zealand, in his senior year. Also, while in high school Khiem became fascinated with the United States and the English language through his teachings and time at the library[1]. After doing so well in high school, Khiem got a scholarship with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to attend college in America[7]. His first stop was the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in Honolulu, Hawaii. He spent a week there before leaving on March 22, 1970 to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. to study English more in depth[8]. In May of 1970, it was determined that Khiem's English was proficient enough for him to start studying at university. So, he began his studies in chemical engineering at Pacific University. While there he learned a lot about American culture, made friends, and joined the fraternity Gamma Sigma[9]. By his sophmore year, due to banking needs in Vietnam[10], he changed his major to business and economics. During the summer after his sophmore year, he became a math teacher for Upward Bound, a role that he would return to every summer for the rest of his college years[11]. After that, looking for more of an academic challenge, he transferred to University of California, Berkeley and studied business administration[12]. Once he finished up his studies and graduated with honors, he returned back to Saigon[1].

Marriage

Khiem met his wife, Thuy Trinh when they both got the USAID scholarship to study in the United States. They were two of the five students sent to Georgetown to study English and then the only two students sent to Pacific University. There they both joined Fraternities and sororities, Khiem with the Gamma Sigmas and Thuy with the Theta Nu Alphas[13]. During their studies they began a romantic relationship. When Khiem transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, Thuy went to Oregon State University to study finance. After they graduated they both returned to Saigon to work. While there, they married while Saigon was under Communist control[14] in the late Spring/ early Summer of 1975[1].

Escaping Communist South Vietnam

After returning to Vietnam, Kheim and Thuy got jobs working for USAID. Specifically, Khiem was teaching accounting to the Vietnamese employees of the Vietnam American Association. Khiem and Thuy both left these jobs when they got better paying job opportunities. Khiem began working a demanding job for Shell as an auditor in the finance department in October, 1974. Thuy then began working for Esso Standard Oil[1]. Less than a year later, on April 29th, 1975, Saigon fell to Communist control as the Americans took back their support to the city[15]. This meant that Khiem and Thuy were now living under Communism. They attempted to escape Saigon, but failed many times[16]. During this time, Khiem was fired from his job and began a new job with Storage Tank Company. His sister, Thao, and brother, Khoa, escaped, but his father was murdered while attempting to flee. On March 18th, 1979, Tim began his successful escape with his wife, Thuy, and siblings Khoi and Mai. They traveled to Rạch Giá to await boarding a boat to escape[1]. They boarded a boat on May 12th, 1979 and began heading to Malaysia[17]. Along the way their boat was taken over by Thai pirates. To escape the pirates they landed on the refugee land of Palau Bidong Island[18]. There they were met by members of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Khiem began acting as an interpreter between the refugees and the aid workers[19]. After a few months, on September 10th, 1979, Khiem and his family began their journey to America. After a couple weeks of travel, on September 30th, 1979, Khiem and his family landed in Portland, Oregon[1].

Life in America

When they arrived in Portland, Khiem and Thuy began looking for jobs. They discovered that in the workplace their names were hard to pronounce so they changed them to Tim and Cathy Tran[20]. Cathy got a job as a credit limit control clerk for a Portland bank. Tim then got a job on March 17th, 1980 as a staff accountant for Johnstone Supply. While working for Johnstone, Tim began pursuing an Master of Business Administration at Portland State University in 1981 to further his career.[21] Over the years he was promoted multiple times, first as the Chief financial officer, then in 1985 he became the vice president of finance[22]. Through Tim and Cathy's hard work, they became citizens of America on May 22nd, 1986. Then, in 1988, Tim earned his MBA. Finally, in 1989, Tim was able to sponsor his sister, Binh, and mother coming to America[23].

While working Tim began to golf with his colleagues at Riverside and joined them in tournaments, specifically the LPGA Pro-Am golf tournament twice[24]. Due to the high stress nature of his job, Tim began to experience health issues, specifically a blood vessel leak in the brain in 1992 and a spontaneous brachial artery rupture in 1998[25]. This led him to retire from Johnstone in 2002, though he still continued to work a different job. In 2001, he began teaching classes in the MBA business and finance programs at the University of Phoenix and the Marylhurst University[1].

Legacy

  • In 2017 he created an endowment to support the Pacific University Library, which was dedicated as the Tim and Cathy Tran Library[26].
  • In 2020 he published an autobiography on his life titled, "American Dreamer: How I Escaped Communist Vietnam and Built a Successful Life in America[27]."

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tran, Tim (2020). American Dreamer How I Escaped Communist Vietnam and Built a Successful Life in America. Forest Grove, Oregon, United States of America: Pacific Univeristy Press. pp. 3–4.
  2. ^ Day, Frank (2001). "Ho Chi Minh". Magill's Literary Annual 2001 – via Salem Press.
  3. ^ Teerawichitchainan, Bussarawan (2009). "Trends in Military Service in Northern Vietnam, 1950–1995: A Sociodemographic Approach". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 4 (3): 61–97. doi:10.1525/vs.2009.4.3.61. JSTOR 10.1525/vs.2009.4.3.61 – via JSTOR.
  4. ^ Lutz, R. C. (1997). "Vietnam 1945". Magill's Literary Annual 1997 – via Salem Press.
  5. ^ Thayer, Carlyle (2018). "Force Modernization: Vietnam". Southeast Asian Affairs: 430–444. JSTOR 26492790 – via JSTOR.
  6. ^ "Chu Van An High School awarded Independence Order". Nhan Dan Online. 2018-11-03. Retrieved 2025-04-29.
  7. ^ "USAC Scholarships | USAC". University Studies Abroad Consortium. Retrieved 2025-04-29.
  8. ^ ELC, Georgetown. "Georgetown University English Language Center". elc.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 2025-04-29.
  9. ^ International, Gamma Sigma Fraternity. "Gamma Sigma Fraternity International". Gamma Sigma Fraternity International. Retrieved 2025-04-29.
  10. ^ Rosengard, Jay K.; Du, Huynh The. "FUNDING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FINANCIAL SECTORREFORM IN VIETNAM AND CHINA" (PDF). Harvard Policy Dialogue Papers: 10–15 – via Ash Center.
  11. ^ "Upward Bound Program | U.S. Department of Education". www.ed.gov. Retrieved 2025-04-29.
  12. ^ Fernandez, Madison. "Why Berkeley Is Number One". Forbes. Retrieved 2025-04-29.
  13. ^ "A Journey Home | Pacific University". www.pacificu.edu. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
  14. ^ Herring, George C. (1991). "America and Vietnam: The Unending War". Foreign Affairs. 70 (5): 10–11. doi:10.2307/20045006. JSTOR 20045006 – via JSTOR.
  15. ^ "Saigon Postmortem". Asian Affairs. 3 (3): 212–213. 1976. doi:10.1080/00927678.1976.10554182. JSTOR 30171898 – via JSTOR.
  16. ^ Nguyen, An Tuan (2015). "More Than Just Refugees—A Historical Overview of Vietnamese Professional Immigration to the United States". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 10 (3): 87–125. JSTOR 10.1525/vs.2015.10.3.87 – via JSTOR.
  17. ^ Tran, Quan Tue (2012). "Remembering the Boat People Exodus: A Tale of Two Memorials". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 7 (3): 80–121. doi:10.1525/vs.2012.7.3.80. JSTOR 10.1525/vs.2012.7.3.80 – via JSTOR.
  18. ^ Vu, Quynh-Giao N. (2007). "Journey of the Abandoned: Endless Refugee Camp and Incurable Traumas". Signs. 32 (3): 580–584. doi:10.1086/510157. JSTOR 10.1086/510157 – via JSTOR.
  19. ^ Sodhy, Pamela (1987). "The Malaysian Connection in the Vietnam War". Contemporary Southeast Asia. 9 (1): 11–16. doi:10.1355/CS9-1D. JSTOR 25797931 – via JSTOR.
  20. ^ "The Name Change of Asian Immigrants | Psychology Today". www.psychologytoday.com. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
  21. ^ "Is an MBA Degree Really Worth It?". Harvard Business Review. 2020-12-07. ISSN 0017-8012. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
  22. ^ "Vietnamese Portland". vietnameseportland.org. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
  23. ^ Batalova, Jeanne Batalova Jeanne (2023-10-10). "Vietnamese Immigrants in the United States". migrationpolicy.org. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
  24. ^ "Tee Sheet: Should the LPGA Allow Pro-Ams During Major Weeks?". skratch.golf. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
  25. ^ "Job Stress Health Effects | Total Worker Health for Employers | CPH-NEW | Research | UMass Lowell". www.uml.edu. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
  26. ^ "A Journey Home | Pacific University". www.pacificu.edu. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
  27. ^ "American Dreamer: How I Escaped Communist Vietnam and Built a Successful Life in America - Pacific University Libraries". 2020-06-07. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
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