Vy Van Pham never talked much about how he had met with President Jimmy Carter, saved hundreds of people fleeing South Vietnam after the war, mortgaged his home to help finance a Vietnamese community center in St. Paul or organized labor movements across the country.
He led by action.
"He was a giant of a man, and we've had very few giants in our community in terms of [being] a visionary for all people," said Tyrone Terrill, president of the African American Leadership Council.
Terrill had just become the St. Paul human rights director in 1997 when Vy Van Pham introduced himself. "He thought it was important to collaborate and work together," Terrill said. "He wanted great things for the Vietnamese people, but he believed all people are connected. And when one [group] suffers, we all suffer. He was wise beyond his years. "
Vy Van Pham, of Minneapolis, died April 2. He was 83.
He was born in northern Vietnam but when the country split, he fled the communists in 1954 and settled in South Vietnam, working on a rubber plantation and then as a union leader, his family said.
"I remember we had to put our father's occupation on school applications and he would say, put down that I work for the people," daughter Hue Pham said. "He was a very humble person. He worked and lived for the people."
When it came time to flee Vietnam, Vy Van Pham could have boarded a helicopter with his family, said his son Cuong Pham. Instead, with the help of the U.S. Embassy, he helped 200 co-workers and their families flee Vietnam on a barge to Guam before being flown to the United States. After six months at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, most of the refugees resettled in Texas or California. His father chose Minnesota.
