Tim Tran

In 1954, at the tender age of four, Tim Tran became a refugee when he escaped Communist North Vietnam by traveling with his parents on a US Navy Landing Craft going to South Vietnam. In 1970, he received a scholarship from USAID to go to college in the United States and graduated with a degree in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley. As a condition of his scholarship, he returned to Vietnam in 1974 (a decision he regrets) and landed a job in Saigon as an internal auditor for Shell Vietnam. When the Communists took over Saigon in 1975, Tim was always under suspicion as a CIA agent for having studied in the U.S. In 1979, he escaped from Vietnam on a harrowing journey by boat to Malaysia and landed in a Malaysian Refugee Camp where he was the camp’s Press Secretary for visiting politicians, dignitaries, and the international press. He also volunteered as an interpreter for English-speaking delegations interviewing refugees for re-settlement. In late 1979, Tim and his family arrived in Portland, Oregon, carrying all their belongings in a small plastic sack. Through a local newspaper, Tim landed a low-level accounting job with Portland’s Johnstone Supply, a wholesale/distributor. Through his vision, ability and hard work, five years later, Tim rose to the position of Chief Financial Officer at Johnstone. After retiring in 2003, Tim taught business courses at the college level for twelve years and was honored as 2004 Faculty of the Year. Today, Tim Tran is a business consultant and a trustee of Pacific University. As a way of “giving back”, Tim and his wife Cathy established an endowment to fund operations for the Pacific University Library, and the library, built in 2005, was renamed the Tim and Cathy Tran Library in their honor.