“Soon Woo Lee, 75, died at home, surrounded by his family, on February 14, 2010, after a challenging, but also rewarding, two-year struggle with lung cancer.”, read the obituary. The challenges? A drastic re-setting of his personal and professional agendas that included an end to presenting seminars, teaching graduate students, and participating in the activities of his beloved Healthcare Financial Management Association. An end to the international travel that Soon and I had enjoyed since his retirement. After we “adjusted” to the devastating news of his illness, Soon did not agonize over the impending end of his life, but did mourn the loss of being able to do the things he loved to do: teach, socialize with friends and colleagues, and engage in professional activities.
The rewards? Family and friends attempted to fill this void by being present to him and with him more often. Our holidays and family celebrations were carefully planned to be “extra-special”. We overwhelmed him with our attention and devotion to his care and comfort and, gradually, he was able to come to terms some of his “losses” and to gain a greater appreciation for and a satisfaction from his roles as husband, father, uncle, friend and “head of the family”. In the process, we forged a new closeness and a tighter bond between family and between friends.
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Soon’s obituary did not appear in the Philadelphia Inquirer, as we had planned, so I’d like to tell you some things about his personal background…..
Soon was born into a multi-generational family in Changdan, Korea (now within the DMZ) on a ginseng plantation owned and operated by his family. He began his education in Seoul, Korea and when the Korean War started in 1950, the family was forced to leave their home and travel south, on foot, to Pusan, Korea, where they lived as refugees until the Korean War ended in 1953.
In 1955, Soon immigrated to the U.S. to continue his college education. He came by Northwest Airlines in a noisy, propeller-driven plane and landed in Seattle, Washington after 36 hours aloft. Then, he took a Greyhound Bus across country, sleeping in YMCAs, until he reached his new home and college, Ohio Northern University, in Ada, Ohio. During the course of the first 10 years in the U.S., Soon attended three universities and earned three degrees of higher learning: Ohio Northern University, a B.A. in Economics (1958), Boston University School of Theology, graduating with an STB degree (Bachelor of Sacred Theology) in 1961, and New York University School of Business Administration (now Stern), earning an MBA in Accounting in 1965. While students at Boston University, we met and married in 1961 in B.U.’s Marsh Chapel.
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Although licensed as a Certified Public Accountant, most of Soon’s career was spent in healthcare administration, working initially at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital as Controller, then at The Bryn Mawr Hospital, where he was Vice President-Finance for 21 years, retiring in 1993. Concurrently, he taught courses and presented seminars in healthcare administration and reimbursement at Temple University’s Fox School of Business and Healthcare Management. In 1993, he retired from Bryn Mawr Hospital and established his own teaching company, Healthcare Finance Institute, that specialized in presenting seminars on topics of healthcare reimbursement and payment around the United States.
In April 2008, Soon became seriously ill and all professional activities abruptly ceased.
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