“Park Seong Ho, YTN, (pause) Washington.” Every report package written by me ends with this standup. My career as a professional journalist began in 1985; my de facto dedication to journalism got stared in 1979 on entering The Kookmin Tribune, the forerunner of The Kookmin Review.

 This story is as much an unpayable debt to a master of journalism as a small achievement of his apprentice. This narrative is meant to be all about an authoritative °∞text on English journalism,°± a description I used in 1989 to honor Professor Kim Young Jeon. That phrase is found in a tribute commemorating the publication of °CIn Quest of Identity°D, a collection of editorials, stories and travelogues written by Prof. Kim.
Kim the Text has never failed me in producing daily news accounts against the deadline and under extreme pressure. His legacy in journalistic finesse still lives on as I continue to write as a field journalist.
Back in the 1970s and 80s his perfectionist approach to writing stories was so rigorous that students had to shape them up to the worst-case scenario before bringing news copies to him. He did not reprimand them outright for making °∞mistakes°± as they were called among the students. I have no doubt that all the reporters for The Kookmin Times, Times Herald, Tribune and Review share this experience. I still cannot resist his watchful eyes as I prepare this eulogy, which means that he is no longer available for copyediting.
Copyediting is not just scribbling the manuscript with red inks. It has nothing to do with inflicting humiliation on the writers whatsoever. It is a tedious, time-consuming, and demanding job. As I put more time in my journalism career, I realize that advancing stories written by someone else needs huge amount of empathic passion for others. Prof. Kim heartily took the trouble to give the would-be journalism disciples his last ounce of knowledge, experience, and caring assets.
The Times and Tribune newspeople have had many opportunities to meet a °∞human-faced°± Kim since he technically ceased to be the faculty advisor. (In fact, he has never been forgotten as advisor since he launched in 1975 the English newspaper on Bugak campus.) Prof. Kim merrily got together with his former students, who now became parents themselves, over beer and spirits. No correction of editorial °∞mistakes°± has been exercised at soju bars. Instead, a lifelong learning off-campus coursework was in store for us: Managing a happy family and enjoying life in the true sense. He adeptly mingled sobering logic with alcoholic beverages with his motto in life - moderation in all things - kept intact.
 
* Prof. Kim Yong Jeon entered KMU in 1972 and  had taught at this school for twenty years. During his tenure of office, he was consecutively the first Director of The Kookmin Tribune. He passed away in December, 2009. May he rest in peace.