Won- Kim

Professor Won-Bok Kim, 89, of Yakima, passed away on March 12, 2016 after a long, event-filled life. Professor Kim was born in 1926, in Sariwon, Korea, at that time occupied by Imperial Japan. The son of a prominent industrialist, he attended private boarding school from the age of 7 years old and matriculated to Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. During World War II, the professor was imprisoned for resistance to the Japanese Occupation, and eluded conscription by the Imperial Japanese Army. Following that conflict, he resided in the Korean Presidential Palace while working as a private tutor. During the Korean War, he again evaded an invading army, in the form of North Korean death squads that were rounding up presidential palace occupants for street-side execution. He never believed in Government much after that, and as late as 1985, was hauled in for interrogation while visiting South Korea and making anti-government remarks about the military coup on the train there. As a Korean War refugee, he escaped capture when the North Korean Army suddenly encamped above him as he hid in the basement heating ducts of what became their field HQ. As one of the few tri-lingual officers also schooled in the written Chinese language, he served with the Osaka Shipping Company as liason officer and translator. He was fortunate to immigrate to the United States, where he married then-medical-intern, Dr. Chung-Hi Lyou, the love of his life. After earning graduate degrees from The University of Pennsylvania and the New School for Social Research, New York, he served 35 years as a Department of Sociology faculty at the Atlantic Community College, Mays Landing, New Jersey. There, he earned kudos for his work ethic, the school newspaper praising him by name for holding class no matter the weather conditions that shut other parts of the college. He was chosen to chair the Sociology Department, but declined, greatly preferring scholarship and teaching to administrative work. Professor Kim loved people of all walks, and always remembered what America as a nation and what American citizens did for him, and for Korea. The family is indebted to several generations of the Ethel Noonan, RN family, Pearl River, New York for their instrumental, other-worldly moral and material support in helping him and his wife cope with their jobs as night watchman, graduate student, resident physician, and the parents of two infant sons. That inter-family friendship which made strong Americans out of immigrants is in its sixth generation. Professor Kim and his wife avidly travelled the world in Europe, Asia, and South America – from Iceland, to Machu Pichu, to Beijing and the Silk Road. He enjoyed the serendipity of meeting people of foreign cultures, with whom he made quick friends. He was a lifelong skier and advisor to his college’s ski club, hitting the slopes perennially in New England, Colorado, Europe, and lastly - White Pass in Washington State. A “Third World” immigrant, Professor Kim inspired his sons to American and British prep school careers of their own and graduations from Yale and Princeton Universities, which he actually regarded as his crowning successes in life. Nearing the last 10 years of his life and already starting to experience what was to become total memory loss, Professor Kim set aside his book-writing efforts to dedicate himself – as he always had in professional and personal life – to “the next generation.” He put himself perpetually “on-call” for frequent childcare duties for his three beloved grandchildren. The family expresses their appreciation to Professor Kim’s unstinting caretakers, Mr. and Mrs. Rick and Elizabeth Low. The family expresses their gratitude for the Memorial Hospital ICU and 2E/W staff who patiently cared for him. Critical Care specialists Drs. Oscar Soraluz and Krithika Ramachandran rescued him from chronic life support. Critical Care nurses Tamra, Marissa, Tim, and Heather expertly attended him during his Intensive Care stay. Dr. Chris Catton rendered expert and compassionate care. The efforts of nurses Sonia and Ava, Floor 2E/W, and the Respiratory Therapists were also greatly appreciated. Hospice Nurse Audrey at The Cottage in the Meadow greatly eased his suffering. Professor Kim was preceded in death by his brother Mr. Won-Gil Kim, the former Korean Director, Ministry of Finance, and is survived by his wife, Dr. Chung-Hi Lyou-Kim, sons Dr. Anatole Kim, and Mr. David Kim of Watertown, MA, the professor’s physics-teacher niece Mrs. Chung-Eun Kim of Chong-Ju, South Korea, and by grandchildren Ethan, Luke, and Caroline Kim. To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Won- Kim, please visit our flower store.