Alumni Lee, Young-shim donates $800,000 in stock to her alma mater

Alumni Lee Young-sim, who graduated from the Department of Theology in 1957 and currently resides in New Mexico, USA, donated stocks worth $800,000 (based on appraised value) to the Sahmyook University’s Development Fund.

This alumnus has donated 265.8 million won to the alma mater on 23 occasions since 2010. Including the stocks donated this time, the cumulative amount far exceeds 1.3 billion won.

She is also the eldest daughter of the late Pastor Lee, Yeo-sik of Unsan, who purchased the current site of Sahmyook University (815 Hwarang-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul) in 1948 and contributed to the establishment of the site.
Sahmyook University, which opened in Soonan, South Pyongan province, in 1906 and was closed in 1942 due to Japanese oppression, found a new home when it reopened in 1947 after liberation.

Pastor Lee Yeo-sik, the vice principal at that time, took responsibility for this project with Pastor James Milton Lee (later principal) and searched for a new education site.

Pastor Lee and James Lee received $85,000 from the General Conference, the world organization of Adventists. Through this, the present land, which was owned by the former imperial family (the imperial family of the Korean Empire), was purchased, and a building was built to lay the foundation for the so-called Sahmyook-dong era.

Alumnus Lee Young-sim said, “My father, who returned from the United States in 1947, only wanted to train young people with education, just like developed countries. At the time, there were only a handful of young people, but he had a big vision and thought of buying this large land as a university site,” she said.

A few years ago, he visited Sahmyook University through the ‘U.S. alumni alma mater invitation event’ and said, “After the 6.25 Incident, I remember the students who came to learn with great hardship. “I thought when it would fill it up because the land was so large, but now it is much better than I imagined,” he said, shouting “wonderful” after seeing the developed university.

“I also received help from many people when I was studying in the United States,” she said. “I donated because I wanted to help when I had the opportunity.”

Meanwhile, Sahmyook University honors the late Pastor Yeo-Sik Lee’s love and dedication to the university by naming the road leading to Jemyeong Lake on campus as ‘Unsan-ro’ after him.