Phu Ngoc Nguyen, O.C. activist
By NGUYEN HUY VU The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA - The last day of Phu Ngoc Nguyen’s life was one of his happiest. He was one step closer to his dream of becoming a doctor Tuesday when he was accepted to UCLA’s preparatory program for aspiring medical students.
The same day Orange County supervisors unanimously passed a resolution that he co-authored to recognize the former South Vietnamese flag as the official symbol of the Vietnamese-American community in the county and to memorialize fallen Vietnam veterans.
He spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with e-mails and phone calls at Orange County Supervisor Lou Correa’s office, where he was an executive aide.
Nguyen drove to his Santa Ana home that afternoon to tell to his parents about the good news but collapsed in his front yard. The 21-year-old community activist was pronounced dead at Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center minutes later. A cause of death was unknown and an autopsy will be conducted, a coroner’s official said.
"It’s a very sad day," Correa said. "He was a bright young man with a whole future ahead of him and it was cut short. He had a golden heart. We’re going to miss him."
Friends and colleagues describe Nguyen as a tireless advocate for local and international Vietnamese issues as well as a champion of health-care reform. Nguyen was the lead organizer of this year’s Tet Festival in Garden Grove put on by the Union of Vietnamese Student Associations of Southern California.
"His philosophy was always ’What more can I do to help the community?’ " said friend Tammy Tran. "He was one of the most loving and selfless people I’ve ever known. He lived for other people, and that’s what made him happy."
Nguyen was born in Saigon in 1983, a year after his father, a police officer in the South Vietnamese military, returned from seven years in a concentration camp. It was a very difficult life for families like his who fought for the south. To survive, his mother sneaked goods in from Thailand. The only job his father could find was fixing bicycle wheels. "We were living day by day," Nguyen said in a February interview.
Nguyen came to the United States in 1991 when a federal program allowed veterans who fought alongside American forces to come to the U.S. Phu, his grandparents, parents and siblings came to live with relatives in Santa Ana.
He didn’t return to Vietnam until 2001. Nguyen said in an interview that he wasn’t prepared to see the abject poverty that remains a daily struggle for many. During his trip, a father and son selling gum approached him and his relatives in a pho restaurant. When Nguyen’s family stood to leave, the father and son took their leftover broth and noodles and began eating it.
"It’s been 30 years and people there still live the same," Nguyen had said. "I’ve been very fortunate."
Those experiences in Vietnam forged his determination to help the Vietnamese-American community. He spent Sundays teaching children his native language, history and culture. His dream of becoming a doctor was rooted in helping his parents financially and desire to serve the community.
Tran said people have called and asked what they could do to help.
"I tell them do what Phu did," Tran said. "He was always working to help everyone. If they did the same that would make him happy."
Nguyen is survived by his father Nguyen Ngoc Luu, mother Vo Kim Cuc, older brother Nguyen Ngoc Phong, and older sister Nguyen Kim Phung.
Services will be held at Peak Family Colonial Funeral Home, 7801 Bolsa Ave., Westminster. Times for the services are pending.
