Anh Tuyet Chan, beloved wife and mother, passed away at the age of 72 following a brief but valiant battle with ALS. She passed peacefully on April 1, 2026 at Duke University Memorial Hospital. Anh leaves behind her husband of 49 years, Joseph, and her two children, Michael and Kristie.

Anh was born on December 25, 1953 in Saigon, South Vietnam, one of eight children of the late Gia Thai Pho and the late Minh Thi Nguyen. She spoke fondly of the Vietnam of her childhood and growing up with her siblings. Anh later traveled to the United States to attend Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, under the auspices of the prestigious Wien International Scholarship Program. There, she met her husband and graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor’s degree in General Science and Sociology.

Anh moved with her husband to New Haven, Connecticut, where a research technician job in the Biology Department at Yale University led to positions at Reed & Carnrick Pharmaceutical Company in Kenilworth, New Jersey, the Environmental Science and Engineering Department at UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health, and CompuChem Environmental Laboratory, an environmental testing company in Research Triangle Park, where she rose to the position of Manager of the Technical Review department. Anh is remembered as diligent and hardworking, as well as a fair and levelheaded manager who stood up for the people working under her.

Anh departed her position to focus on raising her children but would later find a new line of work as a volunteer teacher’s aide at Durham Academy Lower School. That work continued in positions as a Library Assistant at Durham Academy and, following the family’s temporary move to Japan in the 2000s, as a volunteer librarian at Nishimachi International School in Tokyo.

Friends and family remember Anh as warm and caring, one of the first to welcome outsiders into the family. She supported her husband and children, showing up to many recitals and events, staying up late to wait for them to return home, and being the first to meet them at the airport. Anh was thoughtful and incisive, with opinions on all sorts of matters, and gave forthright advice whenever it was asked for. She also had a mischievous streak at times, which was part of her charm. Anh built and ran two households, first in North Carolina and then in Tokyo. She cared for her husband and children, as well as all manner of pets and plants. Anh was loved by those who knew her, and her absence will be profoundly felt in the home she created and the quiet certainty that she would be there. She will be missed.

Anh is predeceased by her father, Gia Thai Pho, and her mother, Minh Thi Nguyen, along with her older brothers Hung and Nguyen. She is survived by her husband Joseph and her children Michael and Kristie. Her surviving siblings are her oldest brother Phuong and his wife Thuy, oldest sister Lan and her husband Hai, older brother An and his wife Huyen, older brother Van and his wife Kheo, and younger brother Ngan, along with nieces, nephews, and extended family. The family also wishes to recognize Dau, widow of Nguyen, along with Ba, widow of Hung.

A private service will be held for immediate family. In lieu of flowers or physical gifts, the family requests donations be made in Anh’s name to I Am ALS, the ALS Therapy Development Institute, or other charities focused on advancing research toward a cure for ALS.