About the Founder

Vũ Văn Lộc, the founder of the Việt Museum and the Immigrant Cultural Center (IRCC), graduated from the Military Academy Da Lat in Việt Nam. By the end of the Vietnam War (1955-1975), Vũ Văn Lộc had risen to the position of Colonel in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). The fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975 marked the beginning of the resettlement period that brought more than one million Vietnamese refugees to the United States. A year later, in 1976, Vũ Văn Lộc came to the United States with his family.

Upon his arrival in California, Vũ Văn Lộc founded the Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center (IRCC) with the intention to provide educational and social services to the thousands of Vietnamese refugees who came to Northern California. In the four decades that followed, the IRCC assisted approximately 30,000 immigrant and refugee families across the world. The IRCC has established itself as a place for the Vietnamese community to gather their ideas, stories, historic artifacts, documents, and valuable works of art. Through the IRCC, Vũ Văn Lộc set about building a collection dedicated to centering the Vietnamese community in the United States.

In 1990, Vũ Văn Lộc began to seek support to create a museum dedicated to the experiences of the diasporic Vietnamese community. He rallied the Vietnamese American community throughout California, as well as contemporary politicians such as former US President Jimmy Carter, to support the project. The aim, specifically once the IRCC became involved in the mid-1990s, was to create a museum in San Jose dedicated to the history and culture of the Vietnamese people in the United States. Those efforts resulted in the opening of the Việt Museum in 2004.

Vũ Văn Lộc continues to dedicate himself to the Vietnamese community through the Việt Museum and the IRCC.

To learn more about Vũ Văn Lộc and his role in the Viet Museum, click here