UCLA student Tai Phan died in a car accident on Interstate 5
while driving through King’s County on Dec. 19. He was
21.
Phan, who was described by friends and family as a lover of life
who never took anything for granted, was driving home to San
Leandro for the holidays.
As a sociology student, Phan wanted to pursue teaching as a
career. His sister, Hanh Phan, said he loved kids and was both a
tutor and a mentor, and wanted to give back to the community in
which he grew up.
“He wanted to come back and work with inner-city
youth,” Hanh said.
Phan was a counselor for Unicamp, a campus program through which
he mentored inner-city kids. Henry Lam, one of Phan’s
roommates, said the children at Unicamp called Phan
“Yodabruin” and had a cheer they would do for Phan.
Lam said Phan had a lot of compassion for friends and family,
along with a “ridiculous” sense of humor that was
contagious.
“We were just watching some silly movie and he’d
just find every bad joke hilarious,” Lam said.
“I’d just have to laugh along because he’d laugh
so hard.”
Phan was an active member of the Vietnamese Student Union at
UCLA and was working as a co-director for Vietnamese Culture Night,
an event planned for later this month.
Kathy Luong, a fellow VSU member and a friend of Phan’s,
said although she considers herself someone who is very hard to
reach, she and Phan became close because he made an immediate
impact on her.
Luong said the two were looking at the meteor shower first
quarter and Phan bought her cheesecake, her favorite dessert.
“There was this last piece of cheesecake,” Luong
said, “and he let me have it. I took it and I ate it, and he
was messing around with me, shoving me … he liked joking around
with me.”
Luong also said she had never met anybody who loved his family
as much as Phan did, and Phan was able to see beauty even in the
“little things.”
Among other hobbies, Phan loved playing his guitar, working on
his Web page and bowling.
“We used to bowl,” said Zinh Le, one of Phan’s
friends. “He had his own ball, shoes and
everything.”
Phan, who recently acquired a digital camera on which he took
numerous pictures of his family, loved photography as well.
Linda Chao, Phan’s Hedrick Hall program assistant last
year, said Phan was always with his camera and camcorder.
Phan moved to the United States in 1982 and lived in Oakland for
much of his life.
He is survived by his father and mother, three younger sisters
and grandparents.