Geunsoo Kim's Obituary
Geunsoo “George” Kim was born on December 10, 1939 in Yusan City, Jeolla Province in South Korea. He graduated from Iri Namsung High School and spent 2 years serving in the South Korean Army. In 1964, he received a degree in Spanish with English minor from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. On May 5, 1965, George married Danjin Choi. They were almost immediately separated though, as George set sail for San Francisco, CA on the S.S. Dong Hae on August 5, 1965. With just a few dollars in his pocket upon landing in San Francisco, he found work as a waiter in an Italian restaurant to pay for his education. George and Danjin eventually reunited in San Francisco in 1967; their first child, Peter Francis Kim, was born on March 25, 1969. George worked his way through school and earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of San Francisco in December, 1970. George and Danjin welcomed daughter, Lesley Frances Kim, on June 25, 1971. In the 1970s and 1980s, George built his career as a journalist and photographer for the Korea Times San Francisco edition, for which he eventually became Editor-in-Chief. Highlights of his journalism career included one-on-one interviews with San Francisco Mayors George Moscone and Dianne Feinstein, serving as the face of the Bay Area Korean community in Bay Area media, and anchoring the Korean-language evening news on San Francisco’s Channel 26. For many, he was THE voice of the Korean American community in San Francisco. George also had a career detour for several years in the 1980s curating the 5,000 Years of Korean Art exhibition in both San Francisco and Seattle. In the late 1980s and early 1990’s, George achieved a long-held dream of publishing two books — one a collection of his editorial essays from the Korea Times, the other, a Korean language novel entitled America Coup D’etat, published in 1991. The plot of America Coup D’etat involved a rogue U.S. military general taking over Alcatraz Island to launch an attack on the American government, interestingly foreshadowing the plot of the Nicolas Cage/Sean Connery film The Rock, which was released five years later in 1996. In 1995, George suffered a massive stroke that took away much of his ability to speak and understand language, and left him partially paralyzed. Despite his disability, he lived a fulfilling life with his family, children and grandchildren for another 22 years before finally succumbing to complications of heart disease and pneumonia. George is survived by his loving wife, Danjin (Choi) Kim; children Peter Kim and Lesley (Kim) Grossblatt (David Grossblatt); and grandchildren Russell “Rusty” Timothy Kim, Sarah Rachel Grossblatt and Zachary Michael Grossblatt. In lieu of flowers, donations made “In Memory of Geunsoo George Kim, BS ‘70” to the USF Scholarship Fund (financial aid for undergraduates) would be greatly appreciated
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