Thu Xuan Le

Thu was the second of five children born in Phan Rang, Vietnam on August 17, 1932. His father died when he was 3 and his mother died when he was 14. He and his siblings were raised by his grandfather on a farm in a small rural village. Thu left Phan Rang for a boarding school in Saigon at the age of 17 as the rural school system only taught kids through primary education. After graduating high school and a French university, Thu became a teacher and taught math to children in French.

As a college graduate with top marks, Thu was selected to attend Naval officer training. He entered the South Vietnamese Navy and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. His leadership skills led him to be the Head of the Vietnamese Naval Training facility in Cam Ranh, Vietnam. In 1966, he traveled to Philadelphia, PA with a Naval division to assume command and navigate a U.S. World War II battleship through the Panama Canal to join the South Vietnamese effort in Saigon. He commanded the ship for the remainder of the war.

In college, Thu was an avid soccer player which fostered his love for watching all types of sports. He married Oanh Pham from Ben Tre (introduced by her brother, a friend and fellow soccer player) in 1967. When Saigon fell to the communist Viet Cong in 1975, Thu was at sea where he rescued over 1000 civilians and took them to safety in Guam. In doing so, he had to leave behind his pregnant wife and 3 young children. He traveled to the U.S. after a few months in Guam and was sponsored by a church in Loveland, Colorado. Thu began working on the assembly line at Hewlett-Packard and had no contact with his family for over a year, fearing retaliation for them if his whereabouts were known. After 3 years apart, his family was finally able to escape from Vietnam on a fishing boat. In the summer of 1978, his wife and 4 children landed at Stapleton International Airport in Denver where the family reunion was captured by local news outlets including the Denver Post, leaving witnesses in tears of joy.

Thu and his wife spent their careers at Hewlett-Packard working opposite shifts so that a parent was always with the children. His mantra was, above all else, you must get a good education. He modeled this by working full-time, spending quality time with his kids, and attending night school to receive an Associates degree as an electronics technician. His work ethic and diligence ensured that his children could attend college. They all graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder, led successful careers, and stayed in Colorado to raise their families.

Thu is remembered for his high standard of kind and respectful interactions, his unyielding work ethic, his charismatic and inspiring leadership, his drive to provide for his family, his loving support of his children and grandchildren, his close friendships with Navy colleagues who followed him to Colorado after the Vietnam war, his love of all sports, his inability to say no to dessert, and his warm smile and contagious laughter.

Thu is survived by an older sister, Thį Tràng in Phan Rang, Vietnam, his wife Oanh Pham, his 4 children: Khoi, Thuy (Tuan Tran), Trang (Tom MacKenzie), and Nam (Brandon Love), and his 7 grandchildren Tai, Khoa, Anh Thu, Linh, Quynh, Nathan, and Ryan.