Jongsoon Chung

1932 - 2023

Jongsoon Chung
January 27, 2023
On January 27th, 2023, Jongsoon Park Chung passed away at her home in Brookline, Massachusetts, after a long illness. Daughter of Park Yanghwan and Jeon Bangsook, Jongsoon was born in 1932 in South Hamgyong province, North Korea. She escaped to South Korea with her immediate family soon after the 38th Parallel between North and South Korea was created in 1945. After the Korean War, Jongsoon graduated from Seoul National University in 1955, then won scholarships to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1957) and the Yale Graduate School of Fine Arts in New Haven, where she received her MFA degree in 1963. Trained as a painter, she was a student of renowned Bauhaus artist and color theorist Josef Albers. Jongsoon taught East Asian brush painting, calligraphy, typography, and color studies at the University of Bridgeport, Albertus Magnus College, and the Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, retiring in 1990. Her works were exhibited variously at the National Art Exhibition in Seoul, Korea; Yale University; the Hammond Museum of North Salem, NY; and various schools, galleries and art shows in the Northeast.
While at Yale, she met Hyung Chan Chung, an architecture student from Seoul, and they married in 1960. The couple settled in Orange, Connecticut where they raised their three children, Junehee, Kee Young, and Jeanhee, and lived happily together for fifty-six years. The couple, who were active in local community service, enjoyed traveling the world and sharing their passion for design and the visual arts.
Jongsoon was a fiercely loving and generous mother and grandmother, known for her dedication, mental acuity, and willpower. She was predeceased by her husband, Dr. Chung, in 2016, despite her valiant support as he battled cancer for twenty years. In addition to her three children, their spouses, and her six cherished grandchildren Max, Linus, Osborne, Ari, Isobel, and Harriet, she is survived by her older brother, Dr. Chai Bin Park of Honolulu, HI, and many beloved nieces, nephews, and friends.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday March 4th, at the New Haven Korean Church, 42 Glen Park Way, Hamden, CT, at 11:30 a.m. Contributions in memory of Jongsoon Chung may be made to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to support multiple myeloma research and patient care via dana-farber.org/gift