Mau Van Tran

“Give me a problem and I’ll hand you a solution.” Those who knew Mau Van Tran would agree that that motto accurately described him. Mau was a man of great drive and a very original, independent thinker. For Mau, no challenge was impossible, and just about any desired result was within his grasp. Mau placed great trust in his intuition. Since that intuition generally led him in the right direction, who was he to doubt it.

Mau was born on May 29, 1926 in Phu Huu Village, Can Tho City, South Vietnam. He was the son of Coung H. Tran and Chan T. Nguyen. His childhood found him in Can Tho City, Vietnam where he matured into the independent person he eventually became.

Mau grew up with eight siblings. He had two older brothers, Tien and Hong, three sisters, Thuy, Kha, and Nganh, and three younger brothers, Hoa, Phoi, and Muon. Mau could be seen as being stubborn by his siblings. It was important to him that he was perceived as “right” when it came to his part in those typical family spats. However, this quality did not over power his caring for his family. This ability to balance his family, with his need to be seen as right, helped him to develop into a young adult while enjoying many good times with his family.

During his grade school years, Mau was a very focused and serious student who actually enjoyed the challenge of many classroom problems. He was determined to succeed, and he drew upon his gifts of trust and perseverance to provide him with a competitive edge. While his first love might have been academics, Mau took part in exercising regularly. Mau delighted in projects that required planning, critical thinking and resolution.

During high school, Mau was relentless in his pursuit of learning, especially in those subject areas that really grabbed hold of his interests. It wasn't that he didn't put forth his best efforts in all classes, but if a subject really interested him, he would eagerly put forth extra effort to learn all he could. Mau graduated from Giang Thanh Phan in Can Tho City, Vietnam.

Mau's inventive side developed as he moved into his college years. When Mau found himself involved in an area that particularly interested him, he could organize and complete any task that was given to him and make it look as if he hadn't really needed to put forth any effort. He earned his college degree in military at Da Lat University in Vietnam. Mr. Mau Tran studied in the U.S. in the late 1950's. He also spent some time in Japan, in 1957, when he served in the military of the South Vietnamese Government.

On September, in 1969, Mau exchanged wedding vows at Phu Tho Hoa of Saigon, Vietnam. Mau often neglected his own feelings in order to give to others. This was very true when it came to how he dealt with his children. He was able to hand on to each child a number of strong values. He taught them to appreciate their abilities, gave them a desire to persevere despite obstacles and set within them a drive to succeed. He had four children, three sons, Nam, Bac, and Duc, and two daughters, Bich and Giao. He also had two grandchildren, Dat and Khoi. They were always aware of how much Mau loved them.

Mau was a military official. He served for the First Republic of Vietnam and the Second Republic of Vietnam. Mr. Mau Tran served in the Vietnamese War against the Communist. Through his hard work and dedication, he achieved the rank of a Major. He received several awards recognizing him for his heroism, including a Mr. Mau Tran achieved all highest awards for a military official during his lifetime of service.

For Mau, his outside interests and hobbies became another exercise in learning and mastering areas that interested him. He greatly enjoyed unraveling the "hows" and "whys" that lay behind his hobbies. Mau was always pushing himself to learn more and to stretch his knowledge base even further. He firmly believed that the more things that he knew the more control he would have over things. His favorite pursuits were reading and studying well-known leaders.

Due to Mau's loyalty and passion for following things through to their conclusion, he found that he was a definite asset to many organizations. Once he was firmly behind a common goal, Mau's skills became an integral part of the planning process and the success of any project. In high school, Mau was a member of the local organization to fight against Communist. In college, Mau continued to joined the organization to fight again Communist. Mau's contributions were valued as being the “structure” person of each individual organization.

Mau placed his interest wholeheartedly behind any project he took on. The “engineer” part of his personality pushed him to find out as much information as he could, to understand the practicality in a given situation. This was something that influenced his involvement in work, pleasure and volunteer activities. Politically, Mau was a supporter of the Republican Party.

Mau's faith allowed him to better appreciate the gifts and opinions of others. This deepening aspect of his life helped him to accept his own feelings to a greater degree. He was a Christian since 1978.

Mau's skepticism was visible when he found it necessary to place too much trust in one person. This was never clearer than when it was time for him to schedule a vacation or period of time away from his regular schedule. Mau loved the research aspects of planning a trip, but the actual process of relaxing was far more difficult. Still, he did manage to enjoy some time away. Favorite vacations included Washington D.C., UC Berkeley, New York, and Japan.

When Mau's retirement finally came in 2010, he was ready. He worked out many of the details in advance so that he could enjoy the time and not have to worry. Mr. Mau Tran retired and spent time with his family in San Jose, California. In retirement, he found new pleasure in worshiping God at church, traveling, and watching historical movies.

Mau Van Tran passed away on March 11, 2012 at Regional Medical Center in San Jose, California. Mr. Mau Tran was a brave fighter against infection for a month. Services were held at Oak Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park. While Mr. Mau Tran is in Heaven with God, his remains were scattered at Half Moon Bay off the coast of San Mateo County Coast.

Mau Van Tran was always drawn to what was measurable, practical and factual. He was a very competent person who expected competence from others. He could be headstrong and certain about the way things were supposed to be. He was determined in every aspect of his life and certain that he was usually right about things. He trusted his intuition over all else, even if it opposed the popular belief, and he had faith in his inner vision and speculations. He wanted to be acknowledged by others as having made a contribution to whatever he was working on. His family and friends will miss his fierce determination, relentless innovations and analytic mind. He leaves with all those who knew him many wonderful memories.