Obituary and On-Going Biography of Sung-Kyun Kim

Obituary

Prof. Sung-Kyun Kim, the founder of ACLA and APELA, was born on February 18th, 1956 in Mungyeong-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea. He died on June 19th, 2020 at 4 pm, at his home #10-1305, 347, Ichon-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea. 



Prof. Kim grew up and lived in his home city until finished his junior high school, Mungyeong Middle School. He moved to Seoul to continue his study at 서울고등학교 Seoul High School. He was graduated from Seoul National University in Landscape Architecture. He then continued his study in US, and graduated with master degrees from University of Pennsylvania, in Art, and in Landscape Architecture. He received PhD. in City and Regional Planning from the same university in US. 

He was a professor of Landscape Architecture at Seoul National University since March 28th 1994. He found the ACLA in 2009 and officially declared it on Dec 3rd, 2012 in Malaysia. Prof. Kim devoted his passion and energy in IFLA while serving both IFLA South Korean delegate and IFLA Cultural Landscape Committee Chair.

The cause of his death was ileus. Ileus is the medical term for this lack of movement somewhere in the intestines that leads to a buildup and potential blockage of food material. Since June 6, Prof. Kim felt stomachaches, lots of gas and constipation. 

But he endured the pain because he intended to complete his lecture for the Landscape Trees subject for his students in CALS, SNU, which was held every Wednesday morning, online by zoom. The 10th June was the evaluation schedule, the last meeting for the subject. The next day, June 11, Prof. Kim met a doctor at the hospital (probably in SNU Hospital, where he usually got his annual general check-up) to cure his illness, but he had to stay in the emergency room.



According to our conversation via WA chat (between Prof. Kim and Anita Arif, the Secretary of ACLA~APELA), he was in his office at SNU on June 13th evening. After that, we all thought he was fine. He still reply email regarding our organization on June 16, posted some beautiful pictures (those I knew old ones) on his Facebook account until June 17 and shared them in the ACLA and APELA groups on June 18. The 19th and 20th were mysterious silences for me. In the very early morning of June 21st, Keunwoo, a PhD. student of Prof. Sung-Kyun Kim informed me that the professor passed away two days ago. Prof. Kim died at his home, because of ileus. The student told me to post an obituary on our Facebook group: Funeral place was in the Funeral parlor 2 of Soonchunhyang University Hospital, Seoul, Korea at June 21st-23rd at 6 pm. His body was burnt out and ashes were placed in the cinerarium.


History of ACLA and Biography of Sung-Kyun Kim

As a tribute to all the hard work and struggle of Prof. Sung-Kyun Kim, we are in the process of realizing his biography with the intention of maintaining the spirit of him as the founder ACLA and APELA forum, especially in the form of the missions as organizations those have seriously raised the values ​​and potential of the cultural landscape in Asia, from an Asian perspective to discover our own identities and plans & design our future world with this cultural landscape.







Some friends at ACLA and APELA forums have agreed to participate in the compilation (sending pictures and writing stories) of this biography, our collaborative work. And we have made the framework, which is a table of contents with 19 chapters plus appendix. We hope that this biography can be completed before Prof.'s birthday. Kim the 65th, which will be on February 18th, 2021.

But, however, it looks like we need more time to process this biography. This is mainly my personal promise (Anita Syafitri Arif), so I will continue to work little by little for this ambition. And, if I work alone, I will only write in Indonesian and Korean.

Thus this notice, as an effort to maintain the spirit of togetherness and continue the mission of the ACLA and APELA forum.

by (ex) ACLA-APELA Secretary

updated, Saturday, June 19, 2021.


Sources:

History of ACLA by Prof. Sung_Kyun Kim as a part of his Keynote Speech in ACLA Symposium in Bali, September 2015.

The latest CV of Prof. Sung-Kyun Kim: CV_SungKyun_Kim_2020_Feb (complete)

WA-chats, FBmessenger-chats, FB postings and comments in https://web.facebook.com/groups/755041287909292/

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