Obituary of Thiem Nghiem

Thieu Nghiem, MD, DrPH, age 84, passed away September 6, 2006 in Olympia, Washington where he has resided since 1973. He was born on January 23, 1922 in Hanoi, Vietnam. His lifelong passion was teaching preventative medicine which he vigorously and joyfully carried out with his students, colleagues, friends, family and chance acquaintances. After completing high school and medical school in the French school system in Hanoi in the 1940’s, he served as a public health leader in Vietnam. In 1952 he came to the US on a World Health Organization fellowship to study public health and preventative medicine. He obtained a Masters’ degree from the Harvard School of Public Health and a doctoral degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University where he studied transmission of the influenza virus. He taught medicine at Wayne State University in Detroit for five years beginning in 1968. In 1973 he relocated his family to Olympia and served as the Washington State epidemiologist – a job he considered especially rewarding and which put his prior training to good practical use in minimizing and controlling infectious disease throughout the State. He was in private medical practice in Olympia from 1983 until his retirement in 1990. During his retirement he remained active thought visiting with his friends, children and grandchildren, exercising daily at the Briggs Community YMCA, reading at the Olympia Public Library, involvement with the Olympia Food Co-op and volunteering at the Olympia Film Society. He often referred to himself as a Buddhist monk in Olympia and strove to live a frugal, peaceful, and reflective life. He was truly an independent thinking proposing to ban smoking in workplaces in the 1970’s, conserving energy long before it was an issue in this country, and taking alternative approaches to traditional medicine. He took his greatest pleasure in seeing health improvements in the patients, family and friends, for whom he cared. He is survived by three sisters, Lan Nghiem of Minnesota, Chau Nghiem of Paris, and Khanh Nghiem of Paris; a brother Khuyen Nghiem of Irvine; his former wife Dixie Nghiem of Olympia; his two sons, David Nghiem of Los Angeles and Paul Nghiem of Redmond; his two step daughters, Sue Peters of Olympia and Becky Cox of McCleary; and his five grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at the Meditation Center, 4104 Goldsby St SW, Olympia, Washington 98502 at 11:00am on Saturday, September 23rd. All friends and family are welcome to attend this gathering at which his remarkably diverse life will be celebrated. In lieu of flowers, donations may be mad in Thieu Nghiem’s name to the Briggs Communinty YMCA, 1530 Yelm Hwy SE, Olympia, Washington 98501.