Founding member, supporter, friend of the International Council for Higher Education, Dr John E. Kim passed away at
2:30 p.m. on May 10, 2010. He was 77.
Dr. Kim was born in Daeduk-eup, Jangheung-Gun, Jeollanam-Do in Korea in 1933. The Korean War broke out while he was just in
high school inspiring him to pray for the very first time. He is believed to have prayed - "God, if you rescue me in the war, I will believe in
you." Theology then became a very natural part of his life.
Dr. Kim graduated from Jinju High School and Kosin University and attended Covenant Theological Seminary. He was transferred
to Calvin Theological Seminary in Michigan, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1961. His Master Of Theology degree came
from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, and his Ph.D. was from Temple University.
He was ordained as a pastor by the Philadelphia Presbytery in 1966 and served as an assistant professor in Chongshin University
in 1967. He later joined the Christian Reformed Church as a pastor and went on to become founder and president of International Theological
Seminary in Los Angeles. In the early 1970s when the number of Korean immigrants increased in that area, Dr Kim and other Korean church leaders
in started schools to train men and women for Korean churches that were needed.
Dr. Kim then moved onto another dream - to found a seminary for international students from Third World countries so that
trained local church leaders could be more effective in their own areas to evangelise and for church growth and church planting. This resulted
in the International Theological Seminary in 1982. (http://www.itsla.edu/)
He was and continued to be involved with Reformed Theological Seminary as part of their Adjunct Faculty in Practical Theology
until his death. In 1995, he returned to South Korea to serve as president of Chongshin University and it was then that his involvement with ICHE
began. He gave enthusiastic leadership and will be sorely missed.
