Phong Nguyen, Over 15 years of service at Oregon Institute of Technology as professor
Wilsonville, OR
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In 1975, Nguyen, a refugee from Vietnam, left an orphanage in Camp Pendleton to reunite with his family in Klamath Falls. In the late seventies, his father, two uncles, and cousin all graduated from OIT. Determined to follow their higher-ed pursuit, he graduated from the Naval Academy as a part of 15th Company, Class of 1985. Following his subsequent 11-year naval service, he proudly left as a Lieutenant Commander. At present, following in his footsteps, his two sons, 2017 and 2018 Naval Academy graduates, are serving this great country as young Navy Lieutenants.
While Nguyen worked as an engineer at Lockheed Martin and Xilinx, his wife wanted to go back to school. To support her educational goal, his family returned to OIT where he taught in the Computer Systems Engineering Technology program while she enrolled and graduated with honors in OIT’s Vascular Ultrasound Program. Outside of teaching, in support of the Klamath community, Nguyen and his two young sons formed the BeeTeeRific String Trio which performed over 50 concerts. Furthermore, he was a Little League umpire and volunteer high school wrestling coach. In 2015, he moved to Wilsonville to teach at the Portland-Metro campus and was awarded the Oregon Tech Foundation Excellence in Teaching Award in 2021 followed by the OIT Honorary Alumnus Award in 2022.