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1963 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public ServiceBIOGRAPHY of Helen Kim
HELEN KIM was born on February 27, 1899 in Inchon, Korea, the fifth of eight children of Kim Chin-yon, a scholar of Chinese classics, and Pak To-ra. The introduction of Christianity and trade with foreign nations had, less than two decades earlier, ushered in an "age of enlightenment." Earliest acceptance of the new philosophy was among Christian families such as the Kims who braved social ostracism to educate their daughters, as well as their sons.
At the age of nine HELEN was sent to Ewha Haktang in Seoul, a move that was to be the determining influence upon her life. The school had been established in 1886 by Mrs. Mary F. Scranton, a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the Northern United States. The name Ewha Haktang, or Pear Blossom School, was given by Queen Min in the following year when enrollment had advanced from one timid student to seven. The first in Korea to provide a modern education for girls, the school became the inspiration and a source of encouragement for many schools that followed.
Before HELEN entered Ewha a high school department had been added (1904); while she was a student Ewha College (1910), a kindergarten (1914) and the Normal Training Department (1915) were established.
Among the new additions, the college grew most slowly. The initial faculty of two missionaries and two Korean graduates of Ewha Haktang was supplemented in the second year by the first three missionaries to be sent to Korea exclusively for college work. But for this resolute band of women the college might have been abandoned.
A decision to join her devoted teachers in their Christian mission of educating Korean women was made by HELEN early in her student days. After graduating from Ewha College in March 1919 as the only member of the fifth graduating class, HELEN taught at Ewha Haktang, Ewha College and in the college preparatory departments for three years. In 1922, encouraged by the mission group to prepare herself better for tasks ahead—and with their help—HELEN took the venturous step of continuing her university studies in the United States. She was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Ohio Wesleyan University in June 1924 and thc following year a Master of Arts degree from Boston University.
Returning to Ewha HELEN served as dean and professor at the college for five years before taking further study abroad at Columbia University where, in 1931, she became the first Korean woman to earn a doctorate. The new Dr. KIM returned immediately to take up duties as Dean and Vice-President of Ewha College. On election to the presidency of the college in September 1939 she achieved the distinction of being the first Korean woman to head an institution of higher learning. During the next 22 years the story of Ewha College and the story of Dr. Kim are one.
The years of the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945) were difficult yet rewarding ones at Ewha. Already important for introducing modern education, Ewha and other private schools assumed a special role after Japanese annexation. From then until liberation in 1945, Korean education was administered by the Japanese whose educational goal was to keep Koreans docile and subject. Although in the mission schools all Christian religious instruction and activities eventually were banned, it was in these and other private institutions that faculty and students had the greatest freedom and opportunity for expression of ideas. Indicative of the spirit fostered in these schools was the prominence of Ewha students and graduates among the women patriots who participated—at the risk of their lives—in the March 1st Independence Movement in 1919
Despite restrictions on education, Ewha continued to expand as schooling for women gained wider acceptance among Koreans. The need for a new and larger site was foreseen in 1923 when 100 acres at Sinchon, in the northwestern part of Seoul, was purchased with funds contributed by an American donor. For 10 years the pine-clad, rolling hills remained unoccupied, though picnic groups from the school regularly enjoyed the vista of river and mountains that the site afforded. In 1933 ground was broken for the new campus under the determined leadership of President Alice Appenzeller, and in 1935 the college moved to Sinchon. The new campus boasted a main hall, gymnasium, chapel and music building, all named in witness of the generosity and concern of Christian friends. Also included were a large dormitory, a Home Management House, an English House, and a kindergarten that later became a practice unit for preschool teachers. A teachers' residence was added in 1938.
Dr. KIM assumed the presidency of Ewha in 1939 just prior to the onset of World War II which forced the departure of the foreign staff. Soon thereafter Ewha was cut off from communication with the outside world. Dr. KIM and other competent Korean teachers, who had from the beginning been placed in executive positions of the institution, kept the college afloat during the difficult years of the war. Lacking foreign support upon which the school has largely depended, Ewha was held together financially by a loyal supporting alumnae group and a strong patrons' association. Generous gifts from two Korean donors—one of her life savings—saved the school at one critical juncture when the Japanese administration threatened to take complete control of the campus. Three buildings were occupied by the military but Dr. KIM managed to hold on to the main hall, dormitory and library, and Ewha's doors were never closed to students. The East Gate Hospital was sold under duress but, by dint of cutting expenditures to the barest minimum, the school survived.
Liberation in August 1945 was a time of great rejoicing. In October 1945 the college opened as Ewha Womans University. Joining with alumnae and patrons in Korea were the Methodist Church in the United States, the United Church in Canada and the Ewha Cooperating Board in North America offering assistance in rehabilitation and expansion to meet the challenge of service to the soon-to-be-independent nation. East Gate Hospital was bought back to be part of the new Department of Medicine and the former Literary Department was modified to become the College of Arts and Sciences. In August 1946 the U.S. Military Government recognized the new university. Throughout 1947 rehabilitation of buildings and equipment and reorganization of the curriculum in all departments proceeded apace. Construction was also begun on a large dormitory, a new over-bridge and a stadium. A new Science Hall was completed in early 1950.
The high hopes for continuing progress were dashed in the dark days of June 1950 when Communist invading troops forced the evacuation of Seoul. "After the liberation of Korea in 1945, we thought our troubles were over," Dr. KIM has said, "but then came the far greater threat of the invasion of Red China. Somehow, we survived and managed to keep a toe-hold of freedom and Christianity in the vast and hostile continent. It has not been easy." The remarkable spirit by which Ewha survived and met the strong demand for education that persisted despite war conditions is one of the great educational sagas and was due in large part to the courage and vision of HELEN KIM.
In September 1950, taking only her Bible, Dr. KIM joined the stream of people trudging south. Gathering together the students that had fled to Pusan she opened a "Campus in Exile," located up 99 rickety wooden steps on a hillside. "The students built the rough board huts themselves," Dr. KIM relates. "We had no floors, no desks and the library shelves were made of orange crates. During the three years we carried on the university in exile, our enrollment doubled from 900 to 2,000."
Alternate dust and mud and noise—particularly from the kindergarten and music department sheds—were to be contended with daily. During one heavy snow many roof supports collapsed but Dr. KIM firmly issued a directive that classes would not be interrupted. The supports had been simple to put in place and they could as simply be replaced. There were few books to read and no lights to study by, little paper and a few pencils, but her motto was, "Carry on." The graduate school was reopened and new departments and new faculty added—the colleges of Education and of Law and Political Science stemmed from this humble beginning. Increasing support came from patrons, parents, and various agencies in Korea, supplemented by gifts from friends on the North American continent.
With the signing of the Korean Armistice in July 1953, when the future of Korea still waited upon the fulfillment of decisions reached at Panmunjom, Dr. KIM and the leaders of Ewha boldly faced the precarious future and moved back to Seoul where a disheartening sight awaited them. The college had been partially bombed. The top story of the main hall burned c>ff, all buildings needed extensive repairs and all furnishings and equipment had been carried off or irreparably damaged by invaders and looters. Again Korean and foreign friends rallied support and rehabilitation was started at a feverish pace. The fall term opened with an enrollment of more than 2,000 students.
Soon in a newly built Sinchon Hospital and the rehabilitated East Gate Hospital medical work was carried on. The university accepted from the U.S. Fifth Air Force cosponsorship and supervision of an orphanage, which provided opportunities for training in childcare and social work. Increasing numbers of faculty were sent abroad for advanced study; between 1945 and 1956 more than 40 members of the Ewha faculty studied abroad under exchange fellowships from interested universities, educational foundations, generous friends and the Methodist Committee. A sixth college—of Pharmacy—was established in 1954. New buildings and departments were added in rapid succession. Korea's ancient glories were not neglected; a course of study leading to an M.A. degree in ceramic art was instituted in 1957 to recapture the spirit of Korea's greatest art—Koryo and Yi celadon. A Sociology Department established the same year provided intensive training in research method through field surveys, of which the most recent was a 1962 urbanization study.
A new library was constructed with a financial contribution from the Cooperating Board in North America, and Helen Hall in honor of Dr. KIM was dedicated in May 1958 when the Ewha faculty and students celebrated her 40 years of service. A life-size statue of Dr. KlM was also unveiled between the main hall, science building and library.
In January 1961, under a directive from the Board of Trustees, President KIM asked Dr. Burnice H. Jarman, Chief Higher Education Advisor of the U.S. Economic Mission in Korea and an educator of long experience, to direct a self-study survey of Ewha Womans University. A faculty Planning Committee organized the overall Self-Study Guide.
The purpose of the survey was to "examine Ewha's goals and programs in terms of present individual and social needs, determine Ewha's present status in terms of her human and physical resources, establish some guide lines for the future in terms of curriculum and co-curriculum, and evaluate Ewha's present contributions to the community."
In the introduction to the survey report Dr. Jarman stated: "Ewha Womans University plays a national role in higher education for women unmatched by any other institution in the Free World; Ewha enrolls one half of the Korean young women who attend college. If Korea is to achieve political and economic independence in a democratic framework, it must give its daughters equal opportunity for higher education as that provided for its sons. It is absolutely necessary, therefore, for Ewha to remain a quality institution. The fate of the nation is at stake in this matter."
Dr. Jarman's study emphasized that,
"Ewha's leadership is intelligent, devoted and inspired. . . . Dr. KIM has developed leadership on every administrative level, both academic and non-academic.
"Her graduates compete successfully with other graduates in American, British, French and German universities. Ewha's teachers, physicians, social workers and Christian workers are leaders in Korean life. Her wives are good mothers who have influenced their husbands with Ewha's ideals."
After commenting upon Ewha's health services, social work and cultural contributions to
Korean life, he concluded:
"The most important and precious Ewha contribution is the Ewha spirit that permeates every aspect of Ewha life, student and faculty. Love of learning, love of goodness, love of fellowship and love of country are evident at every hand . . . .
"I have never worked with a group of educators more dedicated to their goals, loyal to their institution and who served their God and country better."
After instituting the Jarman survey and celebrating Ewha's 75th anniversary, Dr. KIM
retired from the presidency of Ewha University on September 30, 1961. Now serving as
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, she was succeeded by Dr. Okgill Kim, a longtime
co-worker in whom she "gladly finds better abilities than mine as president."
She left a student body of over 7,000 undergraduates and 65 graduate students, a faculty
of over 300 supported by a staff of 59 administrative personnel and 58 general employees
and a campus of 25 buildings of which 12 were large stone structures. The cost to each
student per year in the university was the equivalent of approximately US$200. One hundred
and twenty-eight students were under scholarships and only one-tenth of the annual running
expenses were coming from outside Korea.
Dr. KIM's distinguished service to Korean education has been recognized by two of her alma
maters abroad with awards of Honorary Doctor of Law degrees from Boston University in 1949
and Ohio Wesleyan in 1951 and an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy in Education was conferred
by Cornell University in 1954.
In the span of HELEN KIM'S career the opportunities for Korean women have changed
dramatically. And she, direct, dynamic and tireless yet softspoken and deceptively fragile
in appearance, has herself symbolized the emancipation of Korean women from strict
seclusion to equality under law. Before the late 19th century even the construction of
Korean homes with their inner and outer quarters kept the women in the inner quarters
secluded from the outside world. On their occasional outings they covered themselves with
long robes. Today a considerable number of women pursue professional careers and many
combine a full-time position with the management of a household and the rearing of
children.
A star in this drama of change, Dr. KIM has not only been active in education but also in
civic and religious affairs, promoting the welfare of both women and nation. She
established the Korean National Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) after the 1919
Independence Movement when a number of women patriots joined the multitudes who made their
peaceful protest against the Japanese occupation. Dr. Kim sought to channel this
fervor—which she shared—through an organization that would support the
independence movement and at the same time serve the welfare of Korean women. She has been
a committee member to the present, serving since 1949 as Chairman of the Board of
Trustees.
An ardent internationalist and an early adherent of the interchange of ideas between
peoples of different nations, Dr. KIM attended her first international conference in 1922
as a delegate to the Student Christian Federation at Peking. The next year she attended
the World Council of' the YWCA, also at Peking. Since then Dr. KIM has encouraged the
building of constructive associations with other nations and has herself attended some 30
international conferences concerned with international relations, education, cultural and
religious affairs. Among the most significant was the United Nations General Assembly in
1948 which she attended as a special representative of Korea. Later she was a member of'
the South Korean delegation which presented to the Security Council South Korea's case for
admission to the United Nations. She was an Observer at the United Nations General
Assemblies in 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1959 for her country. She has served on the Executive
Committee of the Korean National UNESCO Commission since 1953 and was Chairman of the
Korean delegation to the 12th UNESCO General Conference in Paris in 1962.
Concerned that the outside world should know more about Korea, she served from August to
November 1950 as Director of the Office of Public Information of the Republic of Korea. In
1951 and again in 1961 she was one of three members of goodwill missions to the United
States, and she visited England in 1953 as a member of a journalists' group on invitation
of the British government. She served in 1951 as Chairman of the Emergency Citizens'
League for Information and Friendly Relations. In November 1950 she helped found The Korea
Times and was its publisher until August 1955. Since 1957 she has been a member of the
Korean Central Sightseeing Committee.
Among the many key positions she has held during nearly half a century of educational and
social work are Vice-President of the Korean Red Cross since 1955, which involved taking
part in a two-month mission to Geneva in 1959 to protest the deportation of long-time
Korean residents from Japan, and President of the Korean Association of University Women
for the last 12 years. She has also served since 1959 as President of the Federated
Women's Associations of Korea which has over four million members.
In her capacity as educator, she has been Vice-Chairman of the National Higher Education
Advisory Committee and a member of the Teachers' Standards Committee since 1954 and, since
1955, Vice Chairman of the Central Education Committee, and a member of the University
Standards Committee and the Educational Advisory Committee. For the last two years she has
been Chairman of the Board of the International Night College, from 1955 a member of the
4-H Club Board, and from 1957 chairman and member of the Board of Trustees of Tong Koo and
Pai Hwa high schools, respectively. She has worked to improve facilities for exchange of
scholars between Korea and other nations and since 1955 has been a member of the
American-Korean Scholarship Committee.
Since 1950 she has taken up the fight against communism. "Until you have seen the
Communists take your own home, your own farm, and the lives of friends and family you
cannot understand what it means," she explains. This cause has taken her to
conferences of the Asian Anti-Communist League in Manila in 1955, Bangkok in 1958 and
Tokyo in 1962.
A devout Christian, she has generously served her church and its mission work, holding a
number of executive posts in religious organizations. Since 1954 she has been a board
member of the Korean Methodist Church Council, given support to the Methodist Seminary in
Seoul, and since 1955 she has been President of the Korean Christian Teachers'
Association. Attending her first International Missionary Council in Jerusalem in 1928,
she was elected Vice-President of the Council in 1954 and has since attended conferences
of the Missionary Council and the World Council of Churches nearly every year in various
parts of the world. She has represented the Korean Methodist Church at Methodist general
conferences in the United States, at evangelic convocations and at conferences of
Christian leaders in Asia.
Having guided and inspired the feminist course in her homeland since her college days she
"somehow never found time for marriage." Her family are the Ewha girls. Now
living in Seoul in the small house which friends built for her to commemorate her long
service to the University, the energetic 64-year-old in her spare time enjoys reading, a
new found talent for calligraphy, and playing the piano. She frequently joins with Ewha
girls in singing folk songs and hymns.
Visitors know her as the smiling, round-faced hostess in flowing Korean gown who
graciously entertains and can talk unceasingly of her country's aspirations. Art objects
collected with discrimination over the years decorate the rooms of her home. The hobby was
born of a leisure-time study of Korean archaeology. Her collection of some 1,500 pieces
has been donated to Ewha Museum.
The life of HELEN KIM personifies the seal of Ewha University. In the shape of a pear
blossom, its emblems are the cross, to represent the Christian character of the school;
the taikuk, or divided circle, to represent the philosophical nature of the national
heritage with its union of diverse and varied elements; three Chinese characters to
represent the motto "Truth, Goodness, Beauty;" and finally the wide-swung doors
of an oriental gate through which is seen "the ascending and difficult path of
service."
August 1963
Manila
REFERENCES:
Bulletin of Ewha Womans University. Seoul, 1960.
Choi, W. P. "The Largest Women's University in the World," Korean Survey.
Seoul. Vol. 8 no. 8, October 1959.
Clark, William. "Korea's Helen Kim," World Outlook. New York. August
1960.
Conrow, Marion L. Our Ewha, A Historical Sketch of E.W.U., 1886-1956. Seoul: Ewha
University Press. 1956.
"Dr. Helen Kim," The First Methodist Messenger. Pasadena, California.
March 24, 1961.
"Dr. Helen Kim Bids Farewell to Ewha," Korea Journal. Seoul. Vol 1, no.
2, October 1961.
"Education," Korea: its land, people and culture of all ages. Seoul:
Hakwon-sa Ltd. 1960.
"Ewha Womans University," Asiatic Research Bulletin. Seoul: Asiatic
Research Center, Korea University. Vol. 5, no. 6, September 1962.
"Ewha Womans University Carries on Past Art Glories," Korea Journal. Seoul.
Vol. 2, no. 2 February 1962.
"Ewha Womans University Spearheads Education for Korean Women," Ibid. Vol.
2, no. 9 September 1962.
Han Jae-yung. "Modern Education in Korea," Ibid. Vol. 2, no. I, January
1962.
Hwang, K. C. "Korea's Famous Feminist," Canberra Times. October 12,
1959.
"In Memoriam," The Voice of Korea. Washington, D.C.: Korean Affairs
Institute. March 13 1950
Kem, Eva Deane. "Dr. Helen Kim honored," The Methodist Woman.
Cincinnati, Ohio. April 1949.
"Korean Educator," Free World. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Information
Agency. Vol. 9, no. 2 February 1960.
"Korea's New System of Education," The Voice of Korea. Washington,
D.C.. Korean Affairs Institute, 1961.
Kyung Cho Chung. "Foreign Policy," New Korea: New Land of the Morning Calm.
New York: MacMillan Company, 1962.
Lee Hee-ho. "YWCA and Women," Korea Journal. Seoul. Vol. 2, no. 6,June
1962.
Manila Sunday Chronicle. November 1, 1959.
Park, Soo Yun. "44 Years Service—Dr. Kim Bids Farewell to Ewha," Korean
Republic. Seoul. October 1, 1961.
Perryman, Leonard. "Helen Kim, 40 Years at Ewha," New York: Board of Missions of
the Methodist Church. Undated.
Portway, Donald. "Education Problems," Korea: Land of the Morning Calm.
London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1953.
Report on the Self-Study Survey of Ewha Womans University. Study requested by
Ewha Board of Trustees and directed by Dr. Burnice H. Jarman, Chief Advisor, Higher
Education, USOM, Korea. Seoul: Ewha University Press, 1961.
Thunstrom, Carl. "Helen Kim—Woman of World Dimension," Svenska
Sandebudet. Sweden. August 31, 1961.
"Women in Modern Korea," The Voice of Korea. Washington, D.C.: Korean
Affairs Institute, 1961.
"Women's Education," Education in Korea. Seoul: Ministry of Education
and National Commission for UNESCO. Vol. 12, 1962.
Interviews with persons acquainted with Dr. Kim and her work.
