Seattle City Wire

The Seattle City Council honored the late Kim Pham during its April 12 virtual meeting for his work bringing news to the Vietnamese community in Seattle.

City Council President M. Lorena Gonzalez said Pham worked hard at his craft as a storyteller.

Pham, who died recently, was the founder and publisher of the Northwest Vietnamese News. His son, Don Pham, attended the virtual city council meeting to accept the proclamation honoring his father.

M. Lorena Gonzalez | Seattle.gov

"Kim recently passed on March 30 and leaves behind a legacy of community building and dedicating his life to the Vietnamese-American communities of Seattle and beyond," Gonzalez said during the council meeting.

Kim Pham leaves behind his wife and three children and fled Vietnam in 1979 with his wife and oldest child. He continued to advocate for immigrants and refugees throughout his life.

"He connected and bridged generations and was a community giant through a long life of service and publishing the longest-running Vietnamese-language newspaper in Washington State," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said Kim Pham worked tirelessly to make sure the Vietnamese community could stay informed.

"Kim was an inspiration and mentor to many in the Vietnamese community across many generations and beyond," Gonzalez said. "He supported the efforts of others in community building, including the launch of other ethnic media outlets."

Don Pham said his father never liked to be in front of the camera, and when he would film news stories for his father, Kim always wanted to be sure he was outside of the frame.

"When COVID hit this past year, it was really hard for the community, in addition to the struggles that newspapers have already been going through," Don Pham said during the meeting. "There were no events to cover because all the events are closed down. Our advertisers were primarily in the service sector, which was hardest hit by the pandemic. And it was really tempting for us to just retire and just... close down."

Don Pham said it would've been easy to close the news media, but his father wanted to keep going despite the pandemic, so that he could continue to provide this important service to the community.

"Even after he had a heart attack in December, the next week he was right at his desk again, still working on that front page," Don Pham said. "And he kept doing that... as long as he could still stand. Now, for him to be honored after all that work trying to serve the community, by the community, it's really amazing. I don't know if he would have been surprised or not, but I definitely don't think this is something he would have ever expected."