Dear Emily,
First, please accept my deepest condolences to the loss of your father. I am a friend and colleague of your dad; he joined my Lab (Environmental Sciences) as a collaborator. Today, I was shocked to hear this news from a student, I cannot write long here due to space limit, please contact me at vanthinhn@gmail.com. God bless you!

This is sad news. Hoang and I were good friends in high school and college. I studied piano with his mother; he took a few college courses from my father. In spite of what he went through to get to America, he was a cheerful and amusing guy --- and very bright. You could not find a more engaging person with whom to have a conversation.