Updated July 28, 2012
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Chau Thien Phan
Biographical Sketch

Chau Thien Phan was Professor of Political Science at Rider University, in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, where he taught from September 1968 to May 2003. He was Chairman of the Rider Political Science Department from 1973 to 1982, and was a lay minister for Rider Catholic Campus Ministry (CCM). He continues to serve as the web minister of Rider CCM until October 2010, when the website was transferred to Fr. Joseph Jakub, chaplain of Rider CCM, at his request.

He came to the United States from Vietnam in 1958 as a student, thanks to a scholarship from Marian College, run by the Sisters of St. Francis of Oldenburg, Indiana. He received the B.A. in Economics and Sociology from Marian College, Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1961; the Master's degree in International Economics and Politics from the Jesuit-run University of Detroit in 1963.  He did his doctoral studies as a Social Science Foundation fellowship recipient under the direction of Dr. Josef Korbel, father of President Bill Clinton's Secretary of State, Dr. Madeleine Korbel Albright, and mentor of President George W. Bush's National Security Adviser and later Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He received the Ph.D. degree in 1965 from the (Korbel) Graduate School of International Studies of the University of Denver

Dr. Phan joined the faculty of the Political Science Department of Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, in 1968, where he was also Director of the Model United Nations program until his retirement in 2003. He was chairperson of the department from 1974 to 1982. His areas of specialty included International Relations and World Politics, Nationalism, American Foreign Policy, the United Nations, global issues such as human rights, global issues including the global economy, population, the environment, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, etc. Among other publications, he edited Annual Editions World Politics 80/81, 81/82, 82/83 for the Dushkin Publishing Group, a subsidiary of McGraw-Hill. 

In terms of avocation, Chau Phan is an independent website designer for non-profit organizations in which he believes. He only designs and maintains web sites over which he has control over both information and presentation. All his works are pro bono. His web designs are simple, straightforward, and stresses fast loading, using minimally distractive graphics. He was the web minister for the Rider University Catholic Campus Ministry for fifteen years until October 2010. He created since December 2002 a website for Santa Maria del Mar Catholic Church in Flagler Beach, Florida, where he is a parishioner. He also designed and maintains the following websites for non-profit organizations: Flagler Churches Together in Prayer and Song, of which he is coordinator; Flagler Area Ministerial Association (FAMA); Flagler County Family Assistance Center/Cold-weather Shelter; The First United Methodist Church of Bunnell, FL.

His Santa Maria del Mar and Rider University Catholic Campus Ministry websites were teaching tools for introducing visitors to reliable Catholic resources on the internet. Therefore, they are not static websites, but follow the liturgical cycle and major feast days, and change by the month or by the week as the case may be. A cause for which he is devoting his special efforts to is the pursuit of Christian Unity in obedience to Jesus' prayer after the Last Supper that his followers be one, like He and the Father are One (John:17). He organized and coordinates Flagler Churches Together in Prayer and Song. In this capacity, he has visited fifteen churches in Flagler County, Florida.

Go to Facebook.com to see his family, former students, and friends.
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With wife Teresa Phuong-Mai Phan
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Sons Thomas & Francis Phan

Chau was married to Teresa Phuong-Mai at St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, DC, in April 1967. Teresa was an Administrative Analyst (Accounting) for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. She is a volunteer liturgical keyboardist at the Grand Oaks Rehabilitation Center in Palm Coast. They have two grown sons, Francis Ai Phan, a software prototypist working in Silicon Valley, and living in San Francisco, CA and Thomas Tam Phan, living and working in Boston, Mass. Chau and his wife Teresa live in Grand Haven, City of Palm Coast, Florida, and serve as AARP Tax-Aide volunteers each year from Feb. 1st to April 15.

To Chau & Teresa Phuong-Mai Phan home page