Ranachith "Ronnie" Yimsut
Ronnie Yimsut emigrated to the U.S. via Thailand's refugee camp in late October of 1978. He went on to graduate from Beaverton High School, received a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture, with an emphasis in environmental planning and design, from the University of Oregon in 1988. He has been serving as a Landscape Architect/Planner on two national forests in the Pacific Northwest Region in the past twelve years. He is currently serving as a District Landscape Architect for the Bend/Fort Rock Ranger District and as the Deschutes National Forest Special Emphasis Program Manager for Asian/ Pacific Islander on Civil Rights and Equal Employment Opportunity in Bend, Oregon.
Born and reared in Siem Reap province, Ronnie fled Cambodia after two decades of turmoil, where he witnessed the massacre of nearly his entire family under the Khmer Rouge regime. An orphan, a refugee, and a "political" prisoner at the age of fourteen, he is now a proud naturalized U.S. citizen, a family man, a professional, an author, an educator, and a volunteer back in his native homeland. Ronnie spent a year (1993-94) in Cambodia where he worked as a Volunteer Development Specialist attached to USAID funded Cambodian-American National Development Organization. He worked in human resource development, including micro-business development to assist urban poor families, instruction/training to university students, special forest products income generation in rural and remote areas, urban and rural planning, animal and seed banks management to support local farmers. He is a co-founder of Cambodia's "Big Brother, Big Sister" program, which has supported and served over 200 orphans. He is currently serving as an Environmental Consultant to the World Monuments Fund on conservation projects at the Angkor World Heritage Site. He is also active on issues facing by his Southeast Asian communities and community in his native Cambodia.
Ronnie's hobbies include ethnic food & music, native arts & crafts, language, history, custom, cultural awareness, community service/volunteering, gardening, as well as numerous other outdoor recreation activities. Married to Thavy (who is a Computer System Manager for the USDA Forest Service and also a Khmer-American) since 1986. They have two children.
Mr. Yimsut contributed the following articles to this site:
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Cambodia: Nationalism, Patriotism, Racism, and Fanaticism
An essay on the elements of Khmer nationalism and ideology. -
Light at the End of the Tunnel
Some thoughts on the future of Cambodia, excerpted from an upcoming book. -
Vietnam: Was it Liberation or Invasion?
When the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979, some people saw them as saviors. Others saw them as oppressors. To some extent, both groups may be right.
Other Works by Ronnie Yimsut:
Life is a Poem
Tonle Sap Lake Massacre (in Dith Pran's Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields)
Fight for Survival
Escape from Cambodia
The Road to Pailin
Land of the Free, Home of the Brave