Myung Soon "Mary" Kim

1944 - 2021

Myung Soon "Mary" Kim

Myung Soon "Mary" Kim, 77, died peacefully in her sleep at 1:55am on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, at Stanford Hospital, after a two-year battle with cancer.
Born in Seoul, Korea on May 17, 1944, the youngest of five children, Mary survived the Korean War and graduated from Gaesong Catholic High School in Seoul. She immigrated to Los Angeles in 1964, the year she met her future husband, Bill S. Kim, in an English class for foreign students. She studied Nursing at Compton College, and, as a lifelong student, she went on to receive multiple Associate degrees in Arts, Tourism, and Travel from Canada College while raising three children in the Bay Area. After Bill became a Trustee at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco in 1999, Mary began volunteering as a docent, and became a translator and assistant in the Museum's library. In 2003, she received a Korean Presidential Award in recognition of her services to the Korean community, and in 2014, she was a founding Board member of the Korean American Community Foundation of San Francisco (KACF-SF). In 2017, the Smithsonian Institution honored Bill and Mary's modern immigrant story in "Many Voices, One Nation," a permanent exhibition display at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Mary will be remembered for her cheerful disposition, dedication to her family, and volunteer work for her community. She loved traveling, hiking, golfing, tennis, reading, gardening, sewing, and spending time with her grandchildren. Mary is survived by her husband, Bill; their three children, Aaron, Christine, and Laura, and their respective spouses; and her five grandchildren, Jessica, Shannon, Lulu, Inez, and Ewan. Donations may be sent to KACF-SF in Mary's memory.