Giving Voice to His Talent : Thai Teacher Sings to Benefit Needy

Growing up, the professor had romantic dreams of becoming a singer.

But because the Thai culture generally snubs the profession--and his parents opposed his plans--Gordon Garoon Rujanawech trod down the respectable road of higher learning instead. He earned a degree in English in Thailand and later a master’s degree and a doctorate in linguistics in the United States.

“I have no regrets,” said Rujanawech, now a professor at Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana and Cal State Long Beach.

But there was more than a touch of wistfulness in his gentle voice. He added slowly, as an afterthought: “I do love to sing. I still cannot get that dream out of my mind--that singing could have been my calling.”

The 50-year-old Costa Mesa resident didn’t scrap his artistic longings altogether. Over time, he took music courses and voice lessons and hobnobbed with professional singers in Thailand. And since 1993, he has recorded three albums, all for the purpose of raising money to aid the poor children of Thailand.

Rujanawech’s latest effort is a concert at Cal State Long Beach on Saturday. Coupled with proceeds from his third album, “A Returning Breeze,” he hopes to raise $10,000 to $20,000 and present it to the Kidney Foundation in Thailand when he visits the country next June.

The Kidney Foundation is close to Rujanawech’s heart because his father died of kidney failure three years ago. “He was a very honest man, very kind to the poor people who were his patients,” said Rujanawech of his physician father. “All my life, I learned that from him, that it is good to give.”

Nothing gives Rujanawech more joy than knowing that he is giving to the less fortunate through his old love: music.

His songs--he wrote two in tribute to his wife and his mother, and the rest were composed by other artists--are Thai romantic ballads and folk songs, sentimental, softly crooned melodies that evoke images of hand-holding lovers and the Thailand sunset.

He has carefully selected the songs for the upcoming concert, which features 15 Thai singers from Southern California. Rujanawech said the event is the largest gathering of Thai performers in the Southland. The concert repertoire traces the development of Thai songs since World War II. “I want the people to learn about the history of Thai songs, the history of the country,” Rujanawech said.

But more than that, the professor wants to give the singers a chance to showcase the talent he never had the opportunity to fully pursue himself. He wants to tell the singers to not give up on their ambitions, that singing, contrary to what he was told, “is a good career.”

“These singers didn’t have much education. But they have their values, their dreams,” Rujanawech said. “I want them not to give up those dreams.”

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Also, because there are about 200,000 Americans of Thai descent scattered throughout Southern California, Rujanawech hopes that the concert will bring many together and give the performers the rare chance to sing onstage before a large audience. “I want recognition for the singers who have been singing for many years, but only in little rooms or in restaurants,” he said.

Furthermore, Rujanawech wants to send a message to the people in his homeland: “Thai people here aren’t forgetting them, even though we have made a new home for ourselves.”

Last year, Rujanawech donated the proceeds of his second album, “Sweetheart,” to several elementary schools in Thailand, buying school uniforms and supplies for 250 students. Money from his 1993 album, “A Date,” helped to build a facility for children with Down’s syndrome. “I love children and would do anything to help them,” said the father of two.

Rujanawech divides his time between raising money for the needy--his personal “need to give back to society and make my life useful”--and teaching. At Rancho Santiago College, he teaches classes on English as a second language. At Cal State Long Beach, he teaches English and writing.

The professor doesn’t tell his students about his charity work or his not-so-secret love of singing.

“In the classroom, my duty is to teach them English, so there’s no reason to tell them about myself,” Rujanawech said. “I guess I’ve been separating the teacher from the singer.”

He paused, then added: “Maybe it’s time to bring the two together.”