Obituaries

Rin Paik

Rin Paik, 92, of Newton, Mass., entered into heaven to be with Jesus on Sept. 30, 2015. Beloved father of Henry and his wife Karen of Chattanooga, and grandfather of Lauren, Shawn, Emily and Lexie. A devoted elder of The Korean Church of Boston, Rin was survived by his wife SonKyung, one daughter, three sons and their spouses, and 10 grandchildren. Rin Paik was a university librarian for 45 years. He worked at Seoul National University (1948 1972) and Harvard University (1972-1993). He had many accomplishments as a librarian, but the major one was keeping The Annals of the Choson Dynasty safe during the Korean War. He moved the entire volumes of SNU library to Pusan and stayed with the books in a storage for three months. He also cataloged over 600,000 books in three months when the university decided to reopen during the war. Learning his ability to catalog that fast, Harvard University invited him for a year to help catalog the Asian books at Yenching Library in 1969. In 1972, Harvard offered him a position at Yenching Library with a green card. He also taught at prestigious universities including Yonsei and Ewha in Korea. In 1975, he was one of the founders of The Korean School of New England and served as a principal for 10 years. The Korean School of New England is now the largest Korean School in the U.S.A., which has about 450 enrollment for Saturday classes. After his retirement, Rin had become a columnist of Boston Korea, a bi-weekly newspaper, until December, 2014. He wrote various series of articles on the history of immigration, history of Chosun Dynasty, history of the libraries, the second generation issues, etc. Although he never lived in Tennessee, Rin was always grateful to TVA. It was a coincidence that someone handed him over a tiny book about TVA a few months before he applied to a librarian position at SNU, and the exam to get that position was all about TVA. After his son Henry moved to Chattanooga, Rin went to see the TVAs Racoon Mountain Vistor Center on his first visit. Rin Paik was a hard working educator with a strong responsibility, leadership, and a big dream, which he instilled to his children and grandchildren. He was an outstanding immigrant with big sacrifices, but much bigger hopes and dreams.

Published October 4, 2015

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