Lay Nguon Ramsey, Ph.D.

Bac 2^ème Partie, Math Elém, 1960 [No. 293]; Lycée Sisowath

B.S. Mechanical Engineering, 1964, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado;

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, 1966, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado;

M.A. Econometrics, 1980, California State University at Long Beach, Long Beach, California;

Ph.D. Economics, 1990, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California;

Accomplishment

One of two first Khmer engineers to work on the development of the Space Shuttle (the other being Mr. Khong-Thay SO, the son-in-law of KIM Chandabot, [the flashiest fellow] and brother-in-law of Mr. IM Sophann, the pharmacist from U. of New Mexico in Albuquerque) conducting the analysis on the thermal penetration at the elevon-elevon gap and the tail rudder, during ascent and entry of the Space Shuttle, from 1980 to 1982;

First Khmer to conduct life-cycle cost estimates for U.S. Space Defense Programs, including the modeling of risk-analysis for the Lead System Integrator project (i.e., the National Missile Defense program announced for deployment by President Bush in January 2003), from 1983 to 2001.

Life Story and Anecdotes at Lycée Sisowath

Primary School: 1948 - 1954
I was born in the year of Horse (toward the end of that year) in Kiensvay, Kandal. I grew up in the village of Prek Eng. This “Prek-Eng” is the same name as the song (‘Hopeless Prek-Eng’, romanized as “Prek-Eng Chea Ti Arss-Sangkhim”) composed by Peou Sipho.

Life in the primary school was quite a normal childhood and uneventful: fishing with mosquito-net, hunting with a sling-shot, gold-fish fighting, stealing fresh tomatoes from the fields, etc. In the 3^rd. grade year (cours élémentaire) the ox cart crushed my right arm, but the voodoo doctor somehow saved it.

Secondary School:
First year : 1954 - 55
I entered the Lycée Sisowath in September 1954, I was ranked 60th among the 300 boys admitted at the competition exam for the entrance. My closest classmates were Penn Thula and Yim Nolland (Classe de 6^ème ‘B’). (Yim Nolland skipped two grades: Classes de 3^ème and 1^ère, while Penn Thula did not, at all.) The history professor was Miss Khieu Ponnary, and the French-language professor was Mrs. Nhuong Peng (nee Keuk Soutien). In that school year, the older and bigger guys (Chek Vanroeun, Pen Chhom, Nop Rang, Sakou Siphonn, etc..) played a lot of pranks on these two young ladies.

Second year : 1955 - 1956
I bonded with two wonderful and marvelous fellow students during the summer school, 1955. We enrolled in a math class together. Ever since, I loved to hang out with these two guys: Mr. UK Tinal, a graduate in Forestry from the University of Georgia, presently in Northern California, and Mr. CHHIM Pemy, an M.D. Neurosurgeon, now living in Baltimore. Those two friends were ‘externes’ for they are city folks from “classe de 6^ème ‘A’ ”.

I received a scholarship in September, 1955, to be a ‘boarder: boursier interne’. From the “classe de 6^ème ‘B’ ”, only Suon Chheang (the future M.D., now living in France) and I got that scholarship. I remembered that only 2 students from each “classe de 6^ème” received that scholarship for the “classe de 5^ème.” There were 8 classes de 6^ème, each having about 40 students. The ‘internat’ is the best educational system that the French had invented for the secondary school age group.

There were about 300 boarders or “internes”, or approximately 10 percent of the school student body, from the ‘classes terminales to 6^ème’ housed in three buildings. I did get to know almost everyone from the senior upper-classmen down to the under-classmen such as myself. When I, in turn, became a senior myself, I again knew all the under-classmen (i.e., in total, I knew people from the 1955 – classes terminales to those who were 1960 – classe de sixième.)

Here are a few memorable experiences, I have had, year by year. For example, Mr. BEN Kunthell (he resides in Paris nowadays and owns a restaurant “Le Cambodge” near the ‘Place de la République’), who was in the ‘Philosophy class’ in 1955-56 academic year, taught me how to play the guitar. I still play it until today, acoustic Latin Dance Rhythm and Jazz Rhythm. (I had a nice visit with Mr. Kunthell last November 2002, reminiscing about old time at the Lycée, of course.) If I may be indiscrete, Ben Kunthell, who was built like a prize fighter, was well known then for a shouting-match fight with the dormitory counselor “Maitre du dortoit - surveillant ”, Mr. So Nem. There was no blood, no harm done. It awoke the whole school-internat.

Another senior friend from the “classe de Sciences Expérimentales 1954-55, Bac II 1955”, that is a year before Kunthell’ s class, is Mr. HUM Sanith, who is presently living in the DC area. He was known as one of the starting right-wing (ailier droit) soccer player on the Lycée Sisowath team. I think that he later studied chemistry in Canada. I got to know him in the US and back home, after my return, in the fall of 1966. We had a special common friend, Mr. SOK Vanthy, the Casanova.

SOK Vanthy, nearly 6-feet tall, was also a Lycée Sisowath alumni, He had a Bac II Séries Sciences Expérimentales, 1956, the same year as Kunthell’ s. He is in the picture at a picnic during the summer 1960 at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where the two students were Mr. CHHOR Kylin (Math Elem, 1957) and Mr. HING Sokhom (Sciences Exp, 1956). SOK Vanthy came to visit both of them at Bucknell after his summer school at Pennsylvania State University. He was a student at the University of Maine, at Orono. He was already a close friend of HUM Sanith, who was in Canada at that time. That was how I got to know these two fine human beings. (Unfortunately, after escaping from the war, the adventuresome and handsome Casanova, Vanthy, with four wives and a dozen children, passed away in Africa and was buried in Long Beach, California.)

In passing, please note that SOK Vanthy and HING Sokhom were classmates in Sciences Expérimentales class, in 1956, while Mr. CHHOR Kylin was in Math Elem in 1957 class. All three came together to the US, in 1958, the famous class. I can still name them all. They were all Alumni of Lycée Sisowath, except Mr. LY Se (now retired and living in Texas) who was from the Lycée Descartes: (1)SOK Vanthy, Civil Engineering; (2) HING Sokhom, Economics; (3) CHHOR Kylin, Political Science, (4) SREY Rithy, Mechanical Engineering; (5) IN Nhell, Civil Engineering; (6) KANG Boracheat; (7) UNG Meng Kruy, Mining Engineering; (8) EAP Bun Phor, Finances; (9) LY Se, Mechanical Engineering; and (10) MAM Sophana, Architecture. They were all IIE scholars.

During the school year 1955-56, I had help in my study from another senior friend: Mr. Toth Kim Teng. He was the last one to pass the ‘French Brevet Elémentaire’ when he was in classe de 4^ème in Siemreap (?), in June 1955. (The Brevet Elementaire was abolished thereafter). He skipped classe de Troisième and joined the classe de Seconde at the Lycée Sisowath. Moreover, he received that fall a scholarship of ‘Internat’. Since he arrived late from Siemreap, there was no bed for him in the Senior dorm, which would be the Northern-most building of the three dormitory buildings. He, then, has to stay in my dorm, among the under-classmen, which is the building with the basket-ball court and the sport-shower room on the ground floor “Préau”. Lucky for me, his bed was next to mine. Painstakingly, he explained and taught me the meaning and usage of the French ‘NE’ expletif (A moins qu’il “NE ” soit trop tard). And I know it until today, and never forget the lesson. I think he is living somewhere in Paris, nowadays. He, too, taught me to play the guitar. He passed the Bac I again, thereby skipping two grades in the secondary education system. He and Chhor Kylin were together in “classe de Math Elém”, with others such as IN Sophann, Ecole Centrale, OUK Leas, TAN Leak Meng, etc.

Both of them, Mr. Toth Kim Teng and Mr. Ben Kunthell, solidified my understanding of the European music or western-culture music, though they didn’t know of their influence. It is a nice extension for me, since, by then, I was already into Jazz listening on the radio “Voice of America”. I discovered or rather stumbled on VOA by sheer luck, while cruising the short-wave radio. That happened in September 1954, because before that time, I did not even know what was a radio.

Undoubtedly, I was piqued to learn English so that I could understand the singing that was part of the American big bands. Since I came to the Lycée Sisowath, I devoted myself, days and nights, to learn English. I signed up for all the free evening English classes taught by the staff of the US Embassy. I had nurtured a dream: “Go to America for the music.”

In the ensuing years, the U.S. Embassy brought through the State Department cultural tour (I later learned of that program) the following bands: Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden. I liked the “Jack Teagarden band”, because it had a young tenor-sax soloist with a nice sound. I learned later that he was none other than the late Mr. Stan Getz, by reading his biography. It is the same Stan Getz who brought with the great guitarist Charlie Byrd the Brazilian Bossa Nova rhythm to the US in the early nineteen sixties, following the release of the film “Orfeo Negro”, the score of which was composed by the world-renowned great Brazilian guitarist Luiz Bonfá. That was the very first time that I saw a real living solo in music.

Further, whenever there were cultural programs in town from the US, I was always selected by the Lycée Sisowath as its representative to attend them, on the strength of my English knowledge, For instance, there was the recital given by the great gospel mezzo-soprano singer, Miss Mahalia Jackson. I could not make out heads or tails of what she was singing. She was accompanied by a pianist on a Grand Piano, and there was no big bands with horns and brass, etc. I was lost but I enjoyed it tremendously.

Furthermore, one factor that strongly influenced my desire and decision to come to the USA is music, evidently. The second and perhaps the strongest of the two factors was the fact that, every year, throughout the secondary education, my end-of-the-year academic prizes always had a stamp that said “With the compliments of the Ambassador of the United States of America.” The prizes were all big hardbound beautiful books about the USA, such as the Far West, life on the Mississippi, Pioneers of the Western Frontiers, the Cow-boys and Gunslingers, etc. Those books and the Cowboy movies made me an expert on the Western cultural stories (in those days, I even tried to dress like one and act like one tough cowboy.)

To jump ahead of myself, I wrote an essay about the Cowboys when I competed for the “Institute of International Education (IIE) ” fellowship to study in the USA. I was the first one selected from a field of twenty finalists. Thus, Denver, Colorado was to be my living quarter for four years, from September 1960 to June 1964. I loved the climate in Colorado so much that I transferred to Boulder to spend two more years at the University of Colorado for my M.S. degree. Although I had begun and completed one semester of work toward the PhD program in Mechanical Engineering, I went back to Cambodia and never returned to continue my studies.

My musical life really began during the “Water Festival” of that school year. One night, it was kind of late, and since the dorm was deserted, a friend, UM Pok, and I, we decided to ride our old bicycles to check out what was happening in front of the Royal Palace. Then we rode to the Flower Garden which extends from the Railroad Station to the River. Just to the side of the Garden and on the river bank there was a night-cub called the “REX.” We put the bikes together and stood on them like a scaffold, and strained our necks to see what went on inside that place. I saw big, fat, ugly, ill-dressed, without tie, old men holding these beautifully shaped women and strutted themselves around the dance floor to the sound of a live band. I swore to myself that I want to hold beautiful women in my arms and without having to marry them. Thus, I devoted my life to become first a good dancer, second, a musician, and third, a big talker, for I observed that women love by hearing and men by sight. I read somewhere that “women talk is like a straw after the harvest, i.e., not much value. But, in the packing of chinaware and crystal, without the straw, everything is broken. “ Voila! I devoted my life to learn to talk small talks with women. Ever since that night,…

Third year : 1956 – 1957
‘Classe de 4^ème’ year was not so pleasant. I had an older brother at the Ecole Normale. There was a fight that broke out after a soccer match between Lycée Sisowath and Ecole Normale. An elder and more senior ‘interne’ student, Mr. Sim Song Leng, who was in ‘classe de Sciences Expérimentales’ sought me out and wanted to beat me up at the siesta about 1:00PM. He pulled me out of my bed and threatened me with bodily injuries. I was wrongly accused of being a spy who had informed my brother of the forthcoming planned raid by the guys of Lycée Sisowath. I was a shaken-up, skinny kid of thirteen who would never forget that experience until today. Worse yet, some of my own classmates joined in the threat, What a deal!

I do not forget those who were unkind to me, and I elect to remember those who were good to me. This is the first time, ever, that I revealed this feeling in public. Later on, without ill-will, I am supposed to marry Mr. SIM Song Leng’s niece in 1964 at the end of my undergraduate study in Denver. Somehow, the whole thing never did materialize. I understood that she married a lawyer, later on.

Fourth year : 1957 – 1958
This school year was again a very nice year. I was infatuated by a lovely girl for whom I was falling heads over heels. Unfortunately, nothing came out of it for she was not even aware that I was alive. Anyway, it was nice to have known the feeling, while it lasted. We have the same French mathematics teacher. He spoke highly of her to me and vice versa. That was how the thing got its start.

All the ‘internes’ students in ‘classe de 3^ème’ passed the exams, both French Brevet and Diplôme d’Etudes Secondaires du Premier Cycle (whatever that means). I was ranked No, 2 in the nation. The most wonderful experience was to witness Mr. CHHIM Pemy enter the monkhood at the end of the school year, for a three-month period. Later on, in the fall of that year, he enrolled in the medical school to become a doctor of medicine. Tinal and I, we continued on our schooling. While most of the guys I knew had mopeds or motorcycles, my father gave me a present: “an especially assembled racing blue bicycle.” My father did ask me what are the parts which I liked to have on that bike. The bicycle was very special to me because my father assembled it, himself. (Some one snatched away from him that bike during the war years, in the late 1970’s.)

Around October 1957, the most fun-filled experience of my life was that Mr. Peou Sipho allowed me to join his band called “Dantrey Sangkum III” as the rhythm guitar player. He had a falling out with Mr. Phuong Bopha. Their first band was called “Dantrey Sangkum I”. There was no “Dantrey Sangkum II”, and why “Dantrey Sangkum III” is anyone’s guess. The guitarist for “Dantrey Sangkum I” was Mr. Ty Nguon Leng. Thus, I became Mr. Ty Nguon Lay, my ‘nom de plume’ as the guitarist for “Dantrey Sangkum III”, for it did give a catchy sound. Ah! The folly of youth, a case of fame seeker. The witness is our own member of LSA, Mr. Ngoy Nguon Long, now residing somewhere in the state of Maryland, who was the-then first alto sax of the band. The band played live on the national radio. The singers were Sisowath Kolachhat and So Photra. It was fun. It was over for me when I got on the plane to go to the USA.

Fifth year : 1958 – 1959
Somehow, Chau Seng, the then-minister of education did not renew or extend the scholarship for the ‘classe de seconde’ of all the boarder-students in ‘classe de 3^ème’ who passed the Diplôme exam. It was supposed to be a given. After the student protest, an exam was organized to have a few student re-admitted or re-instated to the scholarship. After a month-long waiting period, only one name was posted, and it was mine.

In that year, I decided to jump the ‘classe de Première’ and passed the ‘Bac I’ exam, on my own. I left Tinal behind, who was in that photo of Math Elém ‘B’ in 1961 with Jack Kitsirik KRENG, Sar Siphat, Uy Phatna, Yim Yoeun, etc. Yim Yoeun, later on a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal” was with me since ‘classe de 6^ème’. I had lunch with Uy Phatna and Ly Kim Ty, last November 2002, in Paris.

Sixth and last year : 1959 – 1960
I joined Math Elém ‘A’ group of elite students. That year was the very first year where there were 2 classrooms of Math Elém and also 2 of Sciences Expérimentales. Before that, there was only one of each class. We also had the cushy seats from the National Assembly. The classroom had six columns by four rows of two-seater tables. That is, it would hold 48 students before it became a fire hazard.

I still remember vividly the first two columns of fellow-classmates.
The first column had:
A1) [first column ‘A’ and row ‘ 1’] Iv Huot/Ho Thay; A2) Chou Chuttivann/Songthara Omkar; A3) Hong Vareth/Kang Naruth; A4) Sou Nem/Man Teng Sau;

The second column had:
B1) Nou Phonn Tonn (majeur)/Ly Chin Torng; B2) Lay Nguon/Chen Chun; B3) Khy Taing Ly/Huol Hong; B4) Lim Kheng Lam/Hem Yim Eng;

The third column had:
C1) ../..; C2) Leo South Sopheantha/Men Mol; C3) …/…; C4) …/..;

The fourth column had:
D1) …/…; D2) Ly Kim Ty/Men NikTho; D3) …/…; D4) …/…;

The fifth column had:
E1) …/...; E2) Kang Keng/Koh Yea?; E3) …/..; E4) …/…;

The sixth column had:
F1) two Vietnamese guys from Ecole Miche; one of them had polio; F2) another two Vietnamese guys from Ecole Miche [there were 4 of them]. I am trying to recall the names to fill in the blank spots.

It was the first year that we had a student body elected. I was elected as the senator from Math Elém class and appointed to be the in-charge of recreation. The most memorable souvenir I had, was that the Asia Foundation had given our school a complete set of musical instruments for a big band, namely:
Brass:         4 trumpets; 3 Trombones;
Reed:        2 Alto Sax; 2 Tenor Sax; 1 Baritone Sax; 2 Clarinets;
Rhythm:   Piano, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Bass, Drum set (Premier Brand Name with Slingerland Cymbals); Vibraphone (Premier Brand name, the model used by Cal Tjader, when I saw him in Clubs in California - I later remembered).

I became the drummer by default for I can make all kinds of rhythmic sounds which I learned and imitated from hours and hours of listening to Western-world music, in particular Jazz, Cuban, and Argentinean music. My conviction is that music is almost always the best line to start a conversation, and on the dance floor to get phone numbers.

Lastly, during the Chinese New Year festivity, i.e., Feb 1960, I subtly instigated a prank by having everyone ditch school and go instead to eat lunch at Lim Boun Leng’s house which was across the street from the Chinese school “Tong-Hoa”. When the Professor of “Sciences Naturelles”. Mr. LLOZ, came and found an empty classroom, he was very furious. Nou Phonn Tonn, the “majeur de la classe” took all the blaming. We were all punished and had to come to class and study on a Saturday afternoon, that special chapter from the book “ OBRE ”. Guess what? At the exam, one of the three questions in “Sciences Naturelles” was that very chapter – from that fateful Saturday of punishment, which I wrote blindfolded.

When we flew to the US our PanAm flight from Honolulu to San Francisco was late. So, we were put on the next available flight, from San Francisco to New York. It was the American Airlines, first class, because it was a full flight. It was a Boeing 707 and I sat in a big seat by myself. The stewardess came and asked:

Stewardess; “Would you like a cocktail?” with a smile showing her beautiful set of teeth;
Me:                 “Yes,” with the widest grin I could muster;
Stewardess: “ Scotch?”
Me:                 “Yes,” with the widest grin;
Stewardess: “ On the rocks?”
Me:                 “Yes,” still with the widest grin;
Stewardess: “ Would Chivas Regal do?”
Me:                 “Yes.” And I register “rigal in French”;

After I look around and winked at Huol Hong, I gulped down the hatch the small drink, and passed out by falling asleep fast. The next thing I knew we were landing in New York City. Ever since, my favorite drink is Chivas Regal Scotch on the rocks!!!

Once in a while, at the ’internat” there would be children of famous people coming to join us. One of them was Sirik Matak 's son, Nouch, the youngest. I was in Math Elém and he was in 5eme. Yes, he was a trouble maker, and unruly kid; so his father thinks that he can be disciplined by " l'internat." Yes, the ‘internat’ was good for Nouch, for he learned to follow the rules and regulations. The discipline is similar to that of a military academy. I understood his personality and liked Nouch a lot because he was essentially a nice and capricious fellow. Moreover, he played 'the baritone saxophone', my favorite instrument among the so-called1 'reed instruments'. Nouch was a very well trained musician. On occasions, he invited me to his big house on Sundays. That was how I got introduced to his father, Prince Sirik Matak.

For the benefit of those readers who are not familiar with reed instruments in Jazz bands, the Baritone-Sax guy sits at the very far end among the five sax players in the front row of the band. For a full band, the first guy is the #1 tenor, then #1 Alto, next #2 Alto, and the 4th man is #2 Tenor, and last is the Baritone fellow. It is just a customary way of seating arrangement. In passing, if anyone likes to hear an excellent sound of baritone sax, one should listen to the music of Gerry Mulligan.

Nouch played in the Lycée Sisowath band in which I was the drummer. Mr. Nou Nhong, the trumpet player was the band leader. Mr. Hin Medith, the brother of Miss Hin Nouba (Miss Phnom-Penh? or was it Thou Srey Peou - the wife of Mr. Kong Sileas), was the lead trombone player and he had a voice which was very similar to that of Louis Armstrong. Hin Medith was very tall, almost six feet, and an excellent musician, in addition to being a first-class trombonist.

Sisowath Kolachhat was the featured singer of the Lycée Sisowath Band and also of the “Dantrey Sangkum III”, in which I was the rhythm guitarist. Both of them, Nouch and Kolachhat took to liking me, because I was in the "classe terminale - Math Elém", and also because of my sound knowledge about music and dancing at that time. I liked Kolachhat's sister, but, she, being a princess, sort of scared the heck out of me. Besides, she was a very big boned gal, like Kolachhat, but very attractive.

Then, there were evenings of sweet teeth for “Bang-Em”. There was, in the evening after sunset, a young lady who erected her stall to sell "Bang-Em" behind the Ecole Normale, at the corner of Sihanouk avenue and Pasteur street. She was young, in her twenties, but a little bit heavy on the plump side!! She put on a lot of make-up, like a China doll!! Oh! How the big boys were flattering her and of course teased her in the disguised manner of courtship, a la Khmer style!! She enjoyed the flirting scenes with all the boys, as long as the business was good. She missed that and nearly cried when we did a boycott on her business for a more than a week, just to give her a tough time.

Hobbies

I love music: Cuban, Argentinean, and Jazz, dancing and listening.
I play acoustic guitar: classical and flamenco; and Latin percussion instruments;
I love color photography, because I cannot paint;
I love to play chess games, Khmer chess; to travel;
I love reading Applied Maths (No pure maths) books, International Economics books, and literary books, mostly French, like Victor Hugo, Voltaire,,.. like

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Contact information

Ramsey N. LAY
53 Red Rock
Irvine, CA 92604 – 3092
Tel: 949 - 654 - 2462