Remembering former ICMC Secretary General Dr. André Nguyen Van Chau

ICMC pays tribute to Dr. André Nguyen Van Chau, former ICMC Secretary General, who passed away on 15 December, 2024.

Former ICMC Secretary General Dr Van Chau

ICMC remembers and pays tribute to former Secretary General Dr. André Nguyen Van Chau, who passed away peacefully at the age of 89, at his home in Katy, Texas, on 15 December, 2024.

Born in 1935, in the Imperial Citadel of Hue, Vietnam, Dr. Van Chau obtained his doctorate in France before returning to Vietnam to teach English and creative writing at various universities. After the 1975 fall of Saigon, he and family members fled Vietnam, arriving as refugees in the U.S. and finding safety and community in southeastern Texas. He subsequently devoted himself to supporting refugees seeking to rebuild their lives along the U.S. Gulf Coast, including more than a decade leading the resettlement program of the Catholic Diocese of Beaumont, Texas.

Dr. Van Chau served as ICMC Secretary General from July 1988 until December 1997. He led ICMC’s continued contributions to the Orderly Departure Program via which more than 500,000 refugees from Vietnam were resettled, mainly to the U.S, and the expansion of ICMC’s resettlement work to new refugee groups from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.

From the early 1990s, Dr. Van Chau oversaw ICMC’s central role in ensuring lifesaving access to resettlement for thousands of Bosnian Muslims during the war in Yugoslavia. His tenure concluded with the 1997 establishment of three ICMC microcredit institutions providing training and support to start independent enterprises for those displaced by the war in Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo. The latter of these today continues as the largest microfinance institute in Kosovo.

“Dr. Van Chau continued to grow the already strong ICMC presence within global refugee protection and assistance, in particular ensuring that our programs in Southeast Asia flourished and expanded in a sustainable way,” recalls ICMC staff member Ms. Gloria Montanari. “Alongside his visionary leadership, I will remember Dr. Van Chau for his intellectual curiosity and openness, his strong interest in the lives and perspectives of his ICMC colleagues, both personal and professional, and most of all for his infectious smile.”

Following the conclusion of his tenure as ICMC Secretary General, Dr. Van Chau authored a number of publications, and was honored with knighthoods in the Catholic Order of Malta and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.

 “ICMC remembers Dr. Van Chau with deep gratitude for the services he rendered to migrants and refugees in the name of the Church during his tenure as Secretary General”, said current ICMC Secretary General Mr. Davide Bernocchi, paying tribute to Dr. Van Chau. “Let us entrust his soul to the intercession of Mary, the Comfort of Migrants, so that he may rest in light and peace.”

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Dr. Van Chau’s family have kindly requested that those wishing to honor his memory do so by donating to Catholic Charities.

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