Hung Huu Tran

December 10 1945 - March 4 2023
Hung Huu Tran, 77, passed away surrounded by his family on March 4, 2023 after suffering a stroke in June 2022. Hung and his wife, Kim Chi Tran, raised four children in Salem, Oregon. His journey to Salem was one fueled by an unwavering conviction that he could provide a better life for his family after fleeing Vietnam on a United States Air Force cargo plane on April 26, 1975. Hung, the third youngest of 13 children, was born in Phu Long, Phan Thi?t, Vietnam, a coastal village in southeast Vietnam. He sought higher education instead of working on his family farm. He studied electronics engineering at what was then known as the University of Saigon in South Vietnam. He graduated from the Vietnamese National Military Academy (Class No. 24) in Dalat, Vietnam. Hung fought for the South Vietnamese Army alongside the US Army. After fleeing Vietnam with his wife, two-year old son, David, and 10-month-old daughter, Kim, Hung and his family flew to the Philippines, Guam and then a refugee camp at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. Our Savior's Lutheran Church sponsored Hung and his family and re-settled them to Moorhead, Minnesota. Hung continued his English studies and earned an engineering degree from North Dakota State University. The family lived in several cities throughout the Midwest including Fargo, North Dakota and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Hung worked as an electrical engineer at Rockwell-Collins in Cedar Rapids. In May 1980, with Kim Chi 6 months pregnant, the family drove across the country and relocated to Beaverton, Oregon. Hung began his decades long employment as a government employee and worked for Portland State University creating engineering experiments. While in Oregon, Hung and Kim Chi added two more daughters, Kathy and Carolyn. The family moved to Salem in 1982. He eventually landed a job with the Oregon Department of Transportation as an electrical weather technician where he worked for more than two decades before retiring. Some of his favorite projects include installing weather sensors on various bridges in Portland and Gold Beach, Oregon. While in Oregon, he reconnected with many alumni from the Military Academy where he served as the president of the Oregon chapter of the Vietnamese National Military Academy alumni association, sometimes referred to as the West Point of Vietnam. Hung enjoyed his property in southeast Salem surrounded by Christmas tree farms and vineyards where he raised chickens, tilled his fields and fought gophers. Hung tinkered with cars, electronics (he is known to lug home more than one television set abandoned on a sidewalk to fix) and loved computers. For Hung, DIY was the only way - from sprinkler systems to painting his house to cutting firewood. He sponsored 17 family members from Vietnam to the United States (after 20 years on a wait list) and all have established roots with their own children and grandchildren living in Texas, Colorado, and Oregon. Hung was immensely proud of his children: Dave, a geneticist; Kim, an attorney; Kathy a physician; and Carolyn, an emergency veterinarian technician. He shared his hearty laughter as a beloved grandpa, ông n?i (paternal grandfather) to two grandchildren and ông ngo?i (maternal grandfather) to 7 grandchildren. He is survived by his wife Kim Chi, son David (Rachael French) their children Emily and Zachary, his daughter Kim (Angelo Locsin) their children Amilio, Elias and Dante, his daughter Kathy (Kyle Shaw) their children, Ellie and Will, his daughter Carolyn (Roy Underwood) their children Sierra and McKenna. He is survived his brothers, chú Tran (Vietnam), and chú Anh Tran (Los Angeles, California). His parents and ten of his siblings predeceased him in Vietnam. He lived a life in which he forged his own path, and his family all benefited from his fearlessness.

There will be a Buddhist funeral service held on March 19, 2023 at 11:00am PT at City View Funeral Home, 390 Hoyt Street. S., Salem, Oregon 97302.