Dr. Youn Suk Kim

Dr. Youn Suk Kim

Youn Suk Kim
September 15, 1934 – September 27, 2019

Corolla, NC

Dr. Youn Suk Kim, of Corolla, NC (formerly of Cresskill, NJ), passed away on Friday, September 27, 2019, at the age of 85. Son of the late Jae Kyu Kim and Seon Yuh Chung, he was born in Gwangju, South Korea, on September 15, 1934.

He is remembered with great fondness for his warm sense of humor and big-hearted devotion to his family, including immediate and extended family members, and a wide circle of friends. He was generous with both his enthusiasm and caring concern. He took delight in the company of others and could fill a room with the sound of his booming cheery laughter. At other times he often sought to engage in focused one-on-one conversation, whether to discuss his favorite topics of politics and economics, or to offer guidance to younger people about their studies and about life.

Beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, and uncle, Y.S. Kim is survived by his wife, Yong Ho Kim; three children, Herbert Kim, Nan Kim-Paik, and John Kim; five grandchildren, Elijah, Alice, Hannah, Louis, and Lisa; three siblings, Chang Kyung Lawhorn, Ki Suk Kim, and Shin Suk Kim; and five nieces and nephews, Ernest, Youngwoong, Young Joo, Young Hee, and Young Mi.

Y.S. Kim’s professional endeavors revolved around education and scholarship as an economist, university professor, mentor, and author. He was of a generation that sought earnestly to cultivate their talents and abilities to help build up the country of their birth. He received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Seoul National University in 1958. He departed the following year for the United States in 1959, where he initially studied as a foreign student at LaGrange College in Valdosta, Georgia. He later went on to pursue graduate study in economics at the New School (University) for Social Research in New York City, where he earned his MA in 1967 and his PhD in 1973.

Although he had longed to return someday to South Korea, he eventually decided to stay in his adopted homeland, becoming a citizen of the United States in 1977. Rather than pursue the political ambitions of his youth, he instead channeled his professional energies into becoming a scholar of international trade and economic policy, with a special focus on Korea’s relations with other Northeast Asian countries and the US. He joined the economics faculty at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, where he worked from 1974 to 2007. His career also included intervals as a visiting economics professor at Seoul National University, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, and Fairleigh Dickinson University, and a guest columnist at Maeil Business Newspaper.

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