Dr. David Chung
Life of Dr. David Chung (정대위 박사)
“To the Korean diaspora community in Vancouver, Dr. Chung was not just an academic. He was an elder, a neighbour.”[1]
Dr. David Chung (정대위) was born in 1917 in Jiandao, China. He was the only child of Jae Myun Chung (정재면), a teacher in a Canadian mission school and an active member of the Korean independence movement.
Dr. Chung became an ordained minister in 1941 after graduating from Kyoto’s Doshisha University (동지사대학). In 1947, Dr. Chung was selected by Canadian missionaries to receive a scholarship to attend Emmanuel College in Toronto and begin two years of theological training. After completing his degree from the University of Toronto, Dr. Chung returned to Korea in September of 1949. Upon his return, he served as a professor at Hanshin University (한신 대학) and as the Secretary General of the Korean National Commission for UNESCO. In the late 1950s, Dr. Chung decided to pursue further studies and attended Yale University in the United States.
After receiving his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1959, Dr. Chung returned to Korea and held various academic and pastoral positions. In 1968, Dr. Chung accepted a post as a visiting professor at West Germany’s Hamburg University and Canada’s University of Toronto in the Department of East Asian Studies. July of 1968, he became a minister at the Toronto Korean United Church (토론토 한인연합교회) and after one year of service, he accepted a position as a professor of religious studies at Ottawa’s Carleton University. From 1969 to 1983, he taught various courses at Carleton and became renowned as an academic within the Korean-Canadian community.[2]
After years abroad, Dr. Chung returned to Korea to serve as the 11th Dean of Hanshin University in 1983. Upon retirement, Dr. Chung moved to White Rock, British Columbia and on July 25, 2003, he passed away at the age of 86.
Dr. David Chung lived a truly global life, and made countless contributions to the Korean-Canadian community. His Ph.D. thesis titled “Syncretism” Religious Context of Christian Beginnings in Korea was published by the State University of New York Press in 2001 and serves as part of his legacy of academic achievements. [3]
[1] “나는 목사입니다’ 작가 이덕일
http://www.hankookin.ca/bbs/board.php?bo_table=people&wr_id=17
[2] General facts of Dr. Chung’s life taken from the following link: http://archives.commissiondesetudiants.ca/magic/mt62.html
[3] http://www.hankookin.ca/bbs/board.php?bo_table=people&wr_id=17