Thong Van Le was born on August 2nd, 1941 in Phan Thiet, Vietnam. Because of WWII, his birth certificate was established 2 years later.  He was the 7th child of a ten children family whose parents were Dan Van Le and Phu Thi Ly.

In his 20s he has served in Republic of South Vietnam's military where he met his wife,  Kim Chau Thi Nguyen.  They got married on December 20th, 1962 and had 7 children together.

Back in the days, he used to own a private tourist transportation business where he worked freely as a tourist bus driver himself, then was forced to join a union that was systematically controlled under the new government.  Wanting to escape from it and because of a better future for kids, he and his wife had decided to leave Vietnam with four of their children.

In October 1992,  his family left for Philippines under an Oderly Departure Program (OPD) as a transitional process to be resettled to US.  Here, he and his family accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, they got baptized by the pastor Hans Leroy Josephsen on February 28th, 1993 at Morong, Bataan.

In April 1993, he and his family resettled in Burlington, Vermont, United States where he had lived and worked different jobs before owning a restaurant.  He's slowly sponsored the last three children in order to have them all in US.  In his late years, he retired in Florida to be around with some of his children and grandchildren.

Thong Van Le was remembered as a great husband, dad, grandfather who had devoted his life to raise family.  He is an amazing foundation of the Le's clan whose children called "the big sequoia tree" in a way to praise how protective and strong he was toward his loved ones.  He's passed away peacefully at his residence on Wednesday, May 1st, 2024 at age of 82.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests a donation in Thong's memory to St. Jude Children's Hospital