Xuan Chi Diep: The Hanoi Horseman

 

A Sunday, Nov. 2 visit to Magnolia Cemetery produced a nice variety of bird photographs, including the effervescent Roseate Spoonbill. See my "Bustling with Birds" post here. 

And a striking Little Blue Heron. 

But what most intrigued me was this sign leaning against a tall magnolia tree. “In Memory of Xuan Chi Diep” it reads. There’s no date, no context, just what you see. 

If I ever noticed the sign before, I do not remember. That’s one of the things I like about Magnolia Cemetery and its 150 acres: seeing something new, though I’ve been here a few hundred times over the years. 

The memorial sign, dislodged from the base that once held it straight and tall, and the Magnolia tree that now supports it are located next to a unique white zinc monument that I wrote about and photographed in my 2014 book, “In the Arms of Angels: Magnolia Cemetery- Charleston’s Treasure of History, Mystery and Artistry.” More on that book here. 

So what’s the story here? There must be one. I decided to use the holiday season break from my teaching job to find out. And find out I did! 

Restaurant Million, Albertville, France

A Google search provided little information except for one intriguing item. A February 2019 Charleston magazine article, “Deja Food,” about past downtown restaurants included a piece on Restaurant Million, which operated at 2 Unity Alley from 1983-1999. Someone named Xuan Chi Diep had a hand in the French fine dining establishment opening, as explained: 

“The name of this fine dining establishment seemed squarely aimed at the upper crust of society, but it wasn’t manufactured, instead belonging to its founder, Philippe Million. The dining room that the Frenchman opened, Philippe Million Taverne Historique, was unlike anything Charleston had seen before.

Million was lured to Charleston by Chi Xuan Diep, a French-educated native of Vietnam who taught French at the College of Charleston. Diep was also a patron of the Million family’s Michelin-starred restaurant and hotel in the French Alps, which has roots dating to 1770.”

Restaurant Million is in a French Alps hotel 

   So a lot to unpack here. Chi Diep (I       soon learned that friends called him Chi) was from Vietnam, then lived in France where he enjoyed fine dining.

And in Charleston he taught French at the College of Charleston. 

There are some leads to pursue from 

this 2019 Charleston magazine 

article. 

I next went to Ancestry where I found this travel document. Written in French, it is part of a passenger and crew list. 

It is stamped U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, New York, N.Y. It shows that on July 14, 1962 Xuan Chi Diep was admitted to New York after an Air France flight from Paris' Orly Airport. 

The INS form states that Chi Diep was born on Dec. 20, 1936 in Hanoi, Vietnam. His nationality is Vietnamese and he was 25 years old when he landed in New York in 1962. 

The form also included, written in cursive,  Northwestern Natl. Bank, Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is under the address in the United States entry. Under the bank name is “c/o Mrs. Smaby and an address in Minneapolis. 

Next, I contacted Beverly Donald, the longtime Magnolia Cemetery superintendent who retired in 2024. I sent her an email with a photo of the Xuan Chi Diep sign. 

Beverly responded in a couple days, solving this part of the mystery saying Chi was a close friend of G. Simms McDowell III who was for decades, until his death in 2022, president of the board of Magnolia Cemetery Trust that owns and administers the cemetery. 

According to the Stuhr's funeral home tribute, McDowell (1943-2022) was a Broad Street lawyer who had a passion for horses and horseback riding. He likely met Chi Diep at Middleton Place, which has an equestrian center and a hunt club. 

Chi seemed good at making friends in high places. 

My online research also showed a connection Diep had with a historic house at 7 Tradd St. 

Unit 525, as said here, had me thinking one, that maybe he was renting a room within the residence, and two, that he might still be alive and living there at age 88. 

Quite the pricey property is 7 Tradd St. It last sold for $3.275 million. 

Zillow estimates the value today at $4.315 million. Built in 1743, 7 Tradd St. is among the city’s oldest homes. 

When I learned Chi Diep had been a French professor at the College of Charleston I knew I needed to go to the school’s Addlestone Library to look at old yearbooks. 

Specifically, I visited, on the second floor, CofC's Special Collections & South Carolina Historical Society Archives. 

A visitor pass was required to enter the library. No big deal even though I worked and taught here for nearly 30 years and even wrote news releases about the Marlene & Nathan Addlestone Library groundbreaking and construction in the late 1990s/early 2000s when I was with CofC’s college relations office. 

I was directed to this cozy room in Special Collections.  

The Comet yearbooks on the shelves go back nearly 100 years. I was focused on the 1970s-1980s when I thought Chi taught here.

It’s kind of a shame colleges don’t do annual yearbooks like they did back then. They do give a snapshot, a slice of life. Thumbing through a digital yearbook isn’t the same. 

This page for example. Look at the stylish professor identified as “Madame Parrott rushes to class.” 

And lo and behold, here’s Professor Diep who “loves his students,” per the caption. I found his photo in four Comet yearbooks between 1974-1978. I got the sense he loved teaching and the college life. 

Days earlier I reached out to CofC’s languages department to see if any current professors knew him. I received a few affirmatives and anecdotes. “Chi was a dear family friend!” emailed a Spanish professor. “He attended our wedding!” 

“I well remember Chi Diep,” wrote a recently retired Hispanic studies professor. “He was a lovely person.” 

The best anecdote I found was this CofC-written article about prominent columnist Kathleen Parker (who has a son who graduated from the school) met Chi Diep and how he helped her get into the newspaper business. She recounts how in the late 1970s she was at Florida State working towards a doctorate in Spanish after earning a master’s degree in the language. She decided to leave school, loaded up her Toyota and drove north on I-95. In South Carolina where her family roots date to the 1600s she came to the exits for Columbia and Charleston. She says she chose Charleston. 

She arrives in Charleston and goes to CofC to see if a new Spanish instructor is needed. In the languages department hallway she runs into, guess who? French professor Chi Diep. It seems that Diep was good friends with Peter Manigault, publisher of the city’s two newspapers, The News and Courier and the Evening Post. “The next thing you know, Parker was covering town council meetings in Moncks Corner, Goose Creek and Hanahan.” 

The yearbooks were just the beginning of a treasure trove of information Special Collections helped me uncover. Kelly Hudson, archives director, brought to me this file that held an April 9, 1989 Post and Courier article headlined”Honorary French consul a cultural chameleon.” The article, written by Frank P. Jarrell, is a profile of Diep who had recenlty been appointed French honorary consul for Charleston (office at 15 Broad St.). It ties in with the many events to take place marking the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. 

Many of my questions would be answered! 

• Diep comes from a long line of well-educated government officials in Vietnam- "aristocracy" in his words
• In 1952, at age 13, he left Vietnam to study in France- a family tradition
• He returned to Vietnam in 1959 but was unable to visit his home-the country in 1954 had been divided into Communist North Vietnam and anti-Communist South Vietnam

• France would become his home- his family had property there for decades
• At the Sorbonne he earned a degree in Medieval and Renaissance French literature
• When his father said he couldn't make a living with that degree, Chi studied business and economics and the University of Paris
• He then matriculated at France's "high class finishing school”- L'Institue d'Etudes Politiques- called Science Po for short
• 7 Tradd St.? He owned it. He rode a bicycle around town quite a bit.

Chi could afford such a high-end residence, that is apparent. He taught French at CofC for eight years until his father again intervened: "In 1979...he had a little talk with me. He didn't think teaching was very serious business. My family had investments in this country that had always been run by New York banks. He suggested that I take them over since I had training in business." 

So was born C. Diep & Co. based in Charleston. His business involved explorting American tobacco to the Orient, farming in Missouri, venture capital, importing handmade dog collars and leashes from a saddle-making company in France, and other  enterprises. 

Friends describe Chi as always smiling, humorous and well-mannered. In the article, he says he knew the Lowcountry had accepted him when a friend called him "Bubba." 

The Minneapolis connection, implied on his U.S. entry document, is explained. He came to America from France to work at Northwestern National Bank. He spent five years in the Twin Cities that included a stint at the Federal Reserve. 

Enter the Charleston connection, Charles H.P. “Charlie” Duell. Diep met Duell at the French finishing school L'Institue d'Etudes Politiques where they both attended. Duell had just graduated from Yale. They reconnected when Diep was working in Minneapolis. He was not a happy camper because he “had never been so cold in my life.” His friend Duell suggested he move to Charleston. So he did in 1971. 

Duell, a 10th generation Middleton, inherited Middleton Place, the vast Ashley River plantation, in 1969 when he 31. 

It’s easy to imagine Duell bringing Diep into his “upper crust” Old Charleston social circle. Diep, it seems, managed to fit right in. 

CofC Special Collection Director Kelly Hudson

While I was in the room with the yearbooks and the French consul article, Kelly Hudson, in another area, used the NewsBank data retrieval site to find more material on Chi Diep. This 1979 Charleston newspaper article is about hunt club activities at Middleton Place. Diep is in the lower photograph jumping with his horse in a steeplechase event. 

“Diep Xuan Chi Takes A Jump” reads the caption. With his aristocratic upbringing Chi may have been around horses growing up in Vietnam and then during his years in France living a comfortable life, it would seem. 

The Hanoi Horseman would find a comfortable lifestyle here in Charleston too. 

I did not find anything about Diep’s thought on the Vietnam War and the U.S. military fighting Communist forces from 1965-1973. It would be interesting to talk to him about that. He is mentioned in this 1978 article about Vietnamese refugees coming to Charleston. 

His involvement is cited here. 

One refugee success story is Minh Nguyen. He is pictured with Diep in 1989 News and Courier coverage of a Gibbes Museum of Art event. 

Nguyen at age 17 escaped Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975. He eventually made his way to Charleston where his brother had immigrated. He says the city’s French consul Chi Diep helped him find work. 

He tells the story in a June 2024 piece he wrote for the post and Courier that recounts the amazing life he has had here. Nguyen retired last year after 40 years with the Historic Charleston Foundation, most of the time as the maintenance manager of the foundation’s Aiken-Rhett House and Nathaniel Russell House. He says he also co-owns 35 rental properties. 

In the late 1970s Diep helped the young man find employment, per these paragraphs in the P&C column he wrote. 

Chi Diep knew many people, outside Charleston too! 

Minh Nguyen was also featured in a 2020 Charleston magazine profile. He’s pictured with the Rolls Royce he drives around town. Living large! 

At this point in my research I thought Chi Diep might still be alive and living at 7 Tradd St. I told the library workers I would go by the house after I finished here.

That was until this item came up on NewsBank. Dated Dec. 17, 1992 the Post and Courier reported his death at age 55. No cause of death is mentioned and I could not find that elsewhere in my research. 

A memorial service was held that Friday at Middleton Place. Stuhr’s Downtown Chapel handled local arrangements. He was not buried or interred at Magnolia Cemetery, Beverly Donald confirmed. Cremation is common in Asia especially in Buddhism. Chi was survived by his mother and his brother, both of whom lived in France at this time. Perhaps his mother has his ashes. 

Chi did become a U.S. citizen. In Charleston he was a member of numerous boards including the Gibbes Museum of Art, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the Charleston Interfaith Crisis Ministry and the Middleton Place Hounds. 

In the year prior to his death, he was appointed to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History board of directors. 

That same day the Post and Courier had this item on its editorial page. It’s a fine tribute to a man who accomplished so much in his 55 years. His impact on Charleston was huge in the 20 years he lived here. Huge like the magnolia tree G. simms McDowell had planted in his honor more than 30 years ago at Magnolia Cemetery. 

Xuan Chi Diep- The Hanoi Horseman. He was that. And so much more. 

Chi flourished in Charleston and his memorial tree at Magnolia Cemetery is flourishing too, planted more than 30 years ago. 

In my neighborhood is a magnolia tree planted a year or two ago in a former resident’s honor.