Dr. Lan Khac Nguyen, 83, of Garden Grove, CA passed away in his sleep while surrounded by family on February 29, 2024.

He was born June 1, 1940 to father Khoi Van Nguyen and mother Chu Thi Nguyen in Quang Binh, Vietnam, and spent his formative years living with his paternal uncle, Cuu Khac Nguyen, in Saigon, before immigrating to the United States in 1975.

Though as a youth he entertained the notion of teaching mathematics, a teenaged Nguyen presumed that he wasn’t “smart” enough to be a teacher and pursued a career in medicine instead. He attended Saigon Medical School, eventually taking an associate professor position there, then serving as Vice President of Saigon’s Binh Dan Hospital. Later, he would become a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and work as a general surgeon in Delaware, Missouri, and Southern California.

He met Xuan Lan Tran in 1965, the enterprising younger sister of a medical school classmate. Eventually, he proposed by asking quietly, “People say I’m crazy about you–what do you think?” They married on November 13, 1969 and raised four headstrong daughters: Bichhang, Phuong, Anh, and Diana.

Like many, the Nguyen family fled war-torn Vietnam in search of freedom and opportunity in America in April 1975. But like very few, Dr. Nguyen made the unlikely and perilous journey twice, having first made the trip to the States alone in 1974 to secure employment. He made a risky return to Vietnam in order to ensure the safety of his wife and children, leaving the country officially as a family one week before the fall of Saigon.

Though taciturn, methodical, habitual, and demonstrably disciplined, Lan was also warm, egoless, surprisingly funny, and inherently kind. He was unfailingly respectful of others, particularly of their life experience and hard work. He drank thousands of espressos over the course of his life and was a formidable ping pong opponent. In his final years, he showered his young granddaughters with kisses and mentored his preteen grandsons into math wizards–proving that he had the chops to be an excellent math teacher, after all.

Lan is survived by his wife Xuan Lan, children Bichhang, Phuong, Anh, and Diana, and grandchildren Kane, Kash, Kai, Emily, and Maya. He was preceded in death by his parents and brother, Loi.

Funeral services will be on March 16, 2024 at Peek Funeral Home in Westminster, CA. Visitation will be held from 10a to 1p, with a cremation ceremony at 2pm.

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