1988 ARTICLE ABOUT THE YOUNG FEMALE LAWYER IN WASHINGTON D.C.

 Note from Wendy N. Duong:  The article above was written by a Vietnamese journalist of the first generation in 1988,  who called me "the young Vietnamese woman of the year 2000."  This was totally unexpected.  It became one of the sources of inspiration for me to apply for the White House Fellowship in 1990.  I withdrew from the competition after being selected regional finalist for the southwestern states, with the intent to reapply later.  I never did.  This is one of my regrets. In my opinion, the White House Fellowship prepares a young professional for public service on his or her own merit, outside of the political process.

1975 VERSUS TODAY: THE EARLY JOURNALISTIC CAREER OF "NGUYEN DUONG" VERSUS NOVEL WRITING

NOTE FROM WENDY N. DUONG:  In 1975, the year that no Vietnamese American should forget, I was Nguyen Duong at Southern Illinois University.  That was my by-line.  My writing was first recognized by the journalism professors at SIU.  (I brought this real-life experience into the creation of my fictitious character Mimi in "Mimi and Her Mirror.")  Below is the trace of my debut into the world of small-town journalism.  It was not until 1998, when I took my first "early retirement" at age 40,  that my fiction writing first received some recognition, this time from the two bar associations to which I sent my short story, "The Young Woman Who Practiced Singing." Acting independently, they each gave me a writing award in 1998.
I sent the story to Pulitzer author Robert Olen Butler, who called and gave me my first lesson in creative writing over the phone. He also wanted me to undertake MFA studies under him in Louisiana, an opportunity that I could not afford to pursue then.

ABOUT DR. DUONG DUC NHU

DUONG DUC NHU.  Born 1934, Son-Tay, Vietnam. Second child of the village chief of Phung Thuong, Phuc Tho, Son-Tay, and maternal grandson of a Confucius teacher (Cu. Ddo^`) who opened a school near Ha't Mo^n, Son-Tay.  His oldest sister died at 20 during the Indochina War.

B.A. English, University of Saigon; M.A. linguistics, University of London (thesis and Ph.D.-equivalent coursework on applied  linguistics and structural linguistics, uncommon Asiatic languages); Ph.D. educational leadership, Southern Illinois University (dissertation on systematic review of French educational policies and colonial implementation in Vietnam).  British Council scholar (1961); Fulbright Scholar (1972).
Taught at Tran Quy Cap (Hoi-An), Dong Khanh (Hue), and Petrus Ky (Saigon).  Professor/faculty member, School of Pedagogy, University of Hue, Faculty of Letters, University of Saigon, Van-Hanh University; Director of Planning & Research, Director of Overseas Studies, Republic of Vietnam's Ministry of Education. Fluent in English, French, and Vienamese; thorough knowledge of written Chinese (chu Han); research into Chu Nom (Vietnamese deviation from Chinese).  Thinks of himself as an educator, researcher, and translator, not as a creative writer.
Published work in South Vietnam (pre-1975):  Dich Viet Anh, an anthology of English translation of Vietnamese literary texts; Nguoi Thuc Nu, translation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Gentle Maiden) (both pieces of literary translation advocate the use of the literary text as tools for learning English as a Second Language, used at the Faculty of Letters, University of Saigon).  Author of various articles published in Mai-Thao-led literary magazine: e.g., Phan Biet Ngu, Ngon, va Ngon-Ngu (Distinction between Diction, Parle, and Language), Ddo.c Do.c Dduo`ng cu?a Thanh Ta^m Tuye^`n (literary critique:  "Upon Reading 'Along the Road' by Thanh Tam Tuyen"), Xem Tranh Dinh Cuong (art critique: "Upon Viewing Artist Dinh Cuong's Paintings").
Other 1975 writings:
--Thu Ban Den Vai Van De Ngu Am Nham Y Tuong Chinh Tien Van Tu Viet Ngu (Comments on Phonetics Issues for the Thought of Improving Written Vietnamese) (Van Hoa Nguyet San 1965).
--Trang Thai Ngon Ngu va Ngu Hoc Tinh (The Status of Language and Linguistics Properties) (VHNS 1964).
--Ngon Ngu Co He Thong Hay Khong? (Is Language Systematic?) (VHNS 1964).
--Transformational Grammar:  A Brief Review of Chomsky's "Syntactic STructures" (VHNS 1964).
Fulbright-sponsored unpublished work interrupted by the fall of Saigon in 1975:  Revising the IBMElectric Typewriter Keyboard to Accommodate the Vietnamese Language (pioneer work predating today's Vietnamese fonts used in the computer industry); Entry into the World of Picasso's Cubism for Vietnamese Viewers.
Work after 1975:  Anthology of Articles by Teenage Writers on the Vietnamese Culture for the Houston Independent School District; translation of Duong Nhu Nguyen's Her Nine Words (Chin Chu Cua Nang), Chiec Phong Cam Cua Bo Toi (My Father's Accordion) (The Ky 21), and Hoang Hau Chiem Thanh (The Queen of Champa) (unpublished); Suggestions for Standardizing the Vietnamese Language (Van/Van-Hoc); other unpublished and ongoing work relates exclusively to poetry composition in Chinese, and research into Tho Duong (Tang Dynasty Poetry) and Tho Chu Han (Chinese poetry) such as:  Dich tho Duong (typified by Tiet Phu Ngam); Tho Chu Han Cua Nguyen Du.  Dr. Duong's work can also be found in Dong Viet Collection (1993-2009) (Southeast Asian Culture and Education Foundation).
[The above biography is based on memory recollection and/or personal knowledge of Dr. Duong's children living in America. Contact wendynicolennduong@post.harvard.edu for additional information.]

Handwriting of the former village chief of Phung Thuong  recreating the Duong Family's geneology from North Vietnam, and leaving words for his descendants in America. He died and was buried in Southern California (1994). 

THE EARLY 1990s: THE FIRST VIETNAMESE AMERICAN JUDGE IN HOUSTON, TEXAS, 1991-92

NOTE FROM WENDY N. DUONG:  In the early 1990s, I accepted the judgeship appointment in Houston as a public service, and out of a sense of community obligation.  I took my judgeship very seriously and devoted all of myself to it, the same way I had dedicated myself to my federal legal employment, first with the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, Galveston Division, and then, as a trial attorney for the Securities & Exchange Commission in Washington D.C.  That was fond memory of the Capital City.
    For the judgeship, I held court at night and on Saturdays (a reality for the busy "real people" municipal docket in an urban environment like Houston).  I did not seek reappointment, but, instead, left Texas to pursue an international legal career and to have the freedom to  devote myself more fully to the arts.

The unofficial comment I heard through the great vines of Houston was that many thought the mayor had recommended a...skinny fashion model to the municipal bench (see my picture above to see how underweight I was those years!)  So, during my judgeship, I ate a lot of rice to gain weight. I was successful, as seen in subsequent press pictures!  For example, I was shown below in the company of fellow judge Timothy Seo, Economist Wendy Gramm, wife of Senator Phil Gramm and Chair of the CFTC in Washington, D.C., together with a singer-performer at a gala held in Houston.   

What was important to me then was the recognition from the American Bar Association, which held for the first time a conference featuring minority women in the judiciary.  For the first time, a Vietnamese female name appeared on the list, and that was 1993.  It was not until 18 years later that President Obama appointed the first Vietnamese American female lawyer to the U.S. District Court.  I gave up that dream for my career in 1987, putting personal freedom over the pursuit of a lifetime judicial career.  Looking back, I cannot say that my decision was correct.  But the more exciting part of my life, at any age, is to move forward and not to regret.  

TRIBUTE TO VIETNAMESE:  I was very touched to find out that even after my resignation from Houston's municipal bench, unknown Vietnamese have painstakingly compiled my bio from various sources for posting on the internet. They did this without my knowledge, and with a sense of responsibility for the facts as well as the opinions of those who were quoted. My fellow Vietnamese show great respect for my judgeship during our earlier days of resettlement here.  The  bio (below) was sent to me by a friend of my parents, who found it on the internet after reading one of my short stories written in Vietnamese. This bio was the most accurate portrayal of me in the public domain.  It spoke of the woman, and not just the judicial appointee for the City of Houston.  I think of my modest judgeship of the early 1990s in diverse Houston as belonging to the Vietnamese presence in the U.S., our hard work and our collective pride. 

REQUIEM: THOMAS COLLINS, PUBLISHER & EDITOR, RAVENSYARD

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BY RAVENSYARD LTD, Fairfax, VA:

R. Thomas Collins, Jr. (1947 - 2006)

R. Thomas Collins, Jr. (Thomas Collins or “Tom”), 58, a writer, editor, publisher, and international public affairs executive, died of leukemia on May 24, 2006 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Thomas Collins was a current resident of Vienna, Virginia.Thomas Collins was born at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, CT on December 26, 1947 as the second of three children, and first son of Robert T. Collins and Mary Close (Savage) Collins. As a child growing up, “Tom” and family called home West Hartford, CT, and Oakwood, OH. Thomas went to grade school at Renbrook School in West Hartford, and attended Oakwood Junior & Senior High School in Oakwood, OH. As a young man, Tom was active in service through the Boy Scouts, and he achieved Eagle Scout in Dayton, OH in 1962. Tom was a 1966 graduate of Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, OH, where among other activities he served as co-captain of his varsity football team. Tom went on to earn a B.A. in Government from Boston University, where he was graduated in 1970. From there he pursued a career as a reporter before attending and graduating from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism where he earned his M.S.J. in 1974.
Thomas Collins married Sun Oak Kim on April 24, 1971 at St. George’s Catholic Church on the Green in Guilford, CT. Tom and Sun Oak had two children, a daughter, Lee Kathleen, and a son, Micah Thomas, both born in New York City while Tom was attending Columbia and forging the early years of his long career in journalism and public affairs. 

DAVID A. WHEELER, Ph.D., GENETICS SCIENCES

CONTRIBUTORS' BIOGRAPHIES (Tiểu sử tác giả)

DAVID A. WHEELER, Ph.D., GENETICS

Dr. David A. Wheeler is an associate professor in Baylor College of Medicine's Human Genome Sequencing Center (HGSC).  He  joined the HBSC in 2001, where he guided the finishing of the D. melanogaster chromosome 3 and X genome sequence in 2002, followed by the human genome sequence, chromosomes 3, and 12, in 2003.

Currently, Dr. Wheeler is director of cancer genomics and assistant director of the HGSC. He leads the development of methods for discovery of genome variation in human and animal populations using DNA sequencing technologies with the goal of relating polymorphism to human disease.

Wheeler received his bachelor of science degrees in biochemistry and zoology from the University of Maryland and a master of science in biochemistry from the George Washington University. He earned his Ph.D. in genetics from the George Washington University, and conducted postdoctoral research in behavioral genetics at Brandeis University.

He successfully transferred the courtship song rhythm of D. simulans to D. melanogaster by creating transgenic melanogaster carrying the simulans gene. Through this effort, he became interested in the new field of bioinformatics. He joined the laboratory of Charles Lawrence in 1991 at Baylor College of Medicine, in order to develop computational tools for moloecular biology. He also directed the Molecular Biology Computation Resource at Baylor College of Medicine for 10 years before joining the HGSC.