Dad's Legacy

We are sad to announce the death of a member of our editorial board, Choi Sung-il, on 30 June 1991. He was with us only from 1989 until his death, but his prompt, thorough, and insightful refereeing of articles on Korea was an enormous help to us.

Regretfully, most of us at BCAS were only beginning to know Choi Sung-il, and we thus turn to a tribute to him delivered by his good friend Edward J. Baker of the Harvard-Yenching Institute at memorial services for him in Washington, D.C., on 28 July and in Seoul, Korea, on 26 October 1991:

Choi Sung-il was an outstanding human being. He was a scholar and an activist, passionately committed to the view that a scholar is obligated not only to seek the truth but also to act on it. And he was a man of great intelligence and integrity.

A true and loyal friend, I miss him terribly. I first met Sung-il in 1978 when he came to supply some information to the Fraser Committee where I was working on the Investigation of Korean-American Relations. We were in frequent contact after I left Washington to return to Harvard,and we came to work together very closely beginning with the Campaign to Free Kim Dae Jung and His Co-Defendants in 1980. Within a few years we had become like brothers. It was one of the best and most fruitful relationships of my life. We worked together well, and we also had a lot of good times together.

Sung-il was a truly bicultural man. He was the best interpreter and translator I have been privileged to see in action. But more than that, he was a fully competent and highly effective actor in both American and Korean contexts and could switch from one to the other and back without missing a beat. At the same time he stuck to exactly the same high principles in either cultural context.

Sung-il was devoted to the cause of human rights and democracy in Korea and strongly believed in the necessity of making South Korea a truly democratic society as a step on the way toward the ultimate goal of establishing a united democratic Korea. I believe that the achievement of such large goals can only come about through the combined efforts of large numbers of conscientious individuals.

Sung-il certainly made far more contributions to that effort than most of us can hope to make. He has left us far too early, and the work is not yet done. His example should inspire us all to continue to strive for our shared goals.I extend my deepest condolences to his mother; his wife, Liz; his children, Mimi, Morna, and Jason; his sister, Sung ok;and to all others who loved him as I did.

We at BCAS wish to join Edward Baker in offering condolences.From Choi Sung-il's resume we can see that the world has lost a man with much to offer.

At the time of his death, Choi Sung-il was a research associate with the Korea Institute at Harvard University. He received his law degree at Seoul National University in 1965, and his doctorate in political science at the University of Kansas.

He achieved many academic honors, including the Joseph R Harris Fellowship (1970), the Inter-University Consortium for Political Research Fellowship(1970), the National Science Foundation Summer Fellowship(1971), the Social Science Research Council Research Fellowship(1973, 1976, and 1980), and the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Fellowship (1980 and 1985).Choi Sung-il taught and did research in comparative politics, political development, comparative democracy, dependency, and political economy.

He taught political science for more than fifteen years at Hobart and William SmithColleges, Wellesley College, and California State College at Bakersfield. In addition to his work with BCAS, Choi Sung-il served as an editor for the Korean monthly magazine Dari(Bridge), Korea Scope, and the Monthly Review of Korean Affairs.

He also served as program director for the Asia Commission of the International Center for Development Policy. He published numerous articles and op-ed columns for various journals and newspapers, and he translated Prison Writings by Kim Dae Jung. Choi left a partly done book, Opposition Politics in South Korea, 1951-1990, and a study of recent South Korean anti-Americanism, the historical section of which appeared in Korea Scope (December 1989).

We hope that Choi Sung-il's life and work will inspire others to pick up where he left off.

The Editors

(1991) A tribute to Choi Sung-il, 1943–1991, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 23:3, 83-83, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1991.10409717