Tam “Ricky” Huynh

ROCKFORD - Tam “Ricky” Huynh, a devoted family man, fixer of all things, smooth dancer, and a formidable opponent on ping pong and pickleball courts alike, passed away on April 8. He was 62.

A Vietnamese native who made a home in northern Illinois for more than four decades, Huynh built the life and community he had by always showing up: No problem was too futile, too impractical, nor too overwhelming for him to tackle, and getting elbow-deep into the weeds with anyone who needed him was one of his life’s greatest pleasures. If you needed a car tire replaced, he’d be on it. If your driveway needed shoveling, he’d come by. If you irrevocably burned a pot of rice, he’d show up with chopsticks to gobble up the blackened grains.

The third child of a merchant family in what was then called Saigon, Huynh aspired to become a successful surgeon when he grew up. But until then, he and his two brothers made the most of their relatively comfortable life in South Vietnam’s capital, ditching their guardians after school to play soccer and race their motorcycles through crowded city streets and alleyways. But with the civil war that inflamed, then finally consumed Saigon in 1975, his family’s life of leisure came to an abrupt end. Through massive effort, his parents scraped together just enough money to send their third child, then just 17 years old, out of the war-ravaged country in 1978.

Decades later, he would tell his children that everything he did was to grant them the kind of life he’d never had: one full of stability, memorable vacations, karaoke nights, and any opportunity they’d wanted. He would do anything to create that for them, whether that meant working night shifts at his mechanical engineering job or dropping everything to assist with whatever home or car projects they needed to get done.

For his siblings, who joined him in the United States later on, he would also do anything and everything to make sure they were OK – even if that meant driving across the country just to help around the house. Feeling needed, and watching the outcomes of his labors play out in the lives of others, was what made him happy. That, and drinking a couple of beers in the garage with family and friends after a long day, of course.

Friends who met him on the pickleball court admired him for his obsession with the game, though his competitive streak never got in the way of his willingness to mentor those who asked for help. A nationally ranked ping pong player, Huynh came to pickleball during the pandemic and was always down for a match.

The day he passed away, his friends said, he was playing especially well. He is survived by his two children from his first marriage, Antoin Huynh and Joselyn Rand (Ryan); his second wife, Dung Nguyen; two stepchildren, Thien and Nam Huynh; and siblings Thi Hoa Huynh and Thanh Tam Huynh (Ngoc Mai). He will be joining first wife Chi Huynh, father Huynh Van Be, mother Nguyen Thi My, brother Phu Vinh Huynh and brother-in-law Van Tinh Nguyen, and sister-in-law Thi Ngoc Huong Tran in heaven.