Hien Duc Dang

Our father, Dang Duc Hien, was born in Ha Noi, Viet Nam in 1930. He attended high school at Grand Lycee Albert Sarraut and graduated from Faculte de Loi with a law degree. He was enrolled in Officers School of the French Protectorate military in 1952. His family, including his brother Tam and sister Diem, then emigrated from Hanoi to Saigon in 1954. In 1957 he met the love of his life, our late mother, Dieu Anh, in Bien Hoa. Shortly thereafter, they married and had three children, Lien, Khanh, and Hung.

Dad dedicated his professional life to public service, starting with his work in Congress for the Republic of Viet Nam. He went on to enjoy an illustrious career as a diplomat, with an initial assignment to the Republic of South Korea and eventually rising to the rank of minister-counselor and chargé d’affaires in his last assignment to the Republic of China (Taiwan). In 1975, after the fall of Saigon, we immigrated to the United States. Our family resettled in Bismarck, North Dakota where Dad worked as a caseworker at the North Dakota Employment Commission. In 1978, our family moved to Houston, Texas. Dad continued to serve the public, especially the refugee community, as a social worker at Texas Health & Human Services until his retirement in 1995. We admire his selflessness and his compassion for underserved communities that punctuated his desire to give back in gratitude for the opportunities that were accorded to our family after the war.

Dad was a loving father and grandfather who always enjoyed a good Dad joke and time spent among his grandchildren, nephews, nieces, their children, and other family members. From the performances of the granddaughters and grandnieces at Christmas time, to the more boisterous demonstrations of fun by the grandnephews at the holidays, he left every family gathering with a bemused smile and a nod of the head or a thumbs up to signal a very good time. As his children, we remember adventurous family trips all over Asia involving constant clicks capturing our happy or reluctant moments with his camera. (We no longer regret those candid or silly shots.) He said to one of us that photography allowed him to see the world again in all of its beauty. This realization, his knack for and obsession with photography, accompanied by a genuine interest in sharing this wonderful hobby with others, inspired his founding of the Photo Club of Houston which continues to thrive today.

We will always remember Dad with profound love, respect, and gratitude for the life that he has given us. He will live on in the memories that we each hold in our hearts. Thank you for the outpouring of love, support, prayers, and comforting words to our entire family.

A visitation for Hien will be held Thursday, October 26, 2023 from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM at Chapel of Eternal Peace at Forest Park, 2454 S. Dairy Ashford, Houston, Texas 77077.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared with his family at www.chapelofeternalpeace.com