Soon was active in the Healthcare Financial Management Association, both nationally and locally, first in New York City, then with the Metropolitan Philadelphia Chapter, serving on committees and lecturing at educational workshops. In 1994, he received the organization’s Frederick C. Morgan Award for individual lifetime achievement in the field of healthcare finance at the ANI Conference in Washington, D.C., with a proud family looking on. Locally, Soon received the Greater Philadelphia Chapter’s Benjamin Franklin Award for outstanding achievement and contributions to the field of healthcare financial management. Again, in 2009, the Philadelphia Chapter honored him by establishing the Soon Lee Education Award, to be awarded each year to a Chapter member who demonstrates outstanding achievement and contributions to the Chapter membership and beyond in the area of education. The news of this award thrilled and excited him and was definitely some of the best “medicine” he received during his entire illness. Three of his colleagues from the Chapter , Betsy Seeber, Doug Maier, and Tom Heron, who received the first award in 2009, visited our home several weeks later and presented Soon with a duplicate trophy. It was such a happy occasion for him. It affirmed him and his contributions to HFMA over so many years. Our family thanks you for recognizing him in this way and in a timely manner.
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Soon was known for his keen intellect and his exceptional knowledge of healthcare finance. He studied it, he practiced it, he taught it. Perhaps less well-known was his willingness, even delight, in being sought out by his students, former students, and his colleagues for his ability to provide them with valuable career advice, job references, and, sometimes, a source for gaining interviews. Soon believed that knowledge should not be jealously guarded or pridefully kept to oneself for one’s own benefit only, but that it should be shared with others in order to benefit as many people as possible.
Soon’s generous nature and love of learning was evident in his personal life, too.
At home, he shared life with his wife, Joyce, of 48 years, their son, David, and four nieces who came from Korea as teenagers to live with our family and attend school in the U.S.. And, when other family members began to immigrate to the U.S. from Korea; two brothers and a sister, he was delighted that he could help them to get “settled”.
Soon was an active member of Yardley United Methodist Church for 42 years. In his younger years, he assisted with youth programs. Later on, he served a term as a Trustee and several years as Treasurer.
About a year into his illness, Soon was asked by a nephew to write down his advice to the next generation. This is what he wrote:
“Speak the truth”….It is not always “convenient” to tell the truth. It may be embarrassing to you. It may “cost” you something. Truth should always be spoken in love, and with gentleness. “Speaking the truth” can strengthen the bonds between people.
“Learn to listen”….Real listening occurs when you put yourself in another person’s shoes. Even if you don’t agree with what you hear, make an effort to correctly and objectively understand what is being said. This is the first step toward Wisdom. It unlocks many doors which were previously sealed. Opening someone’s heart comes when you truly listen.
“Live out of your Bigger Self”. Within each of us, there is a “Smaller Self” and a “Bigger Self”. Most of us live out of our “Smaller Self”, the one which allows us to be petty and quarrelsome, selfish, envious of others, and greedy. Those negative emotions sap the precious creative and loving energies from us. Free yourself from the bonds of the “Smaller Self” and attempt to live out of the “Bigger Self”, the one that allows us to be loving, kind, generous, considerate and compassionate.
Soon knew that he wasn’t always able to follow is own advice, but he knew that when he did, he was “Soon at his very best”. If he was asked the same question today, perhaps by someone at an HFMA meeting, but for our present generation, for ourselves, I think Soon might give the same advice: “Speak the Truth”, “Learn to Listen”, and “Live Out of Your Bigger Self”…at home, with your families and in the workplace, with colleagues”. He leaves us with this wisdom to live by.
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