Tom Kim

Tom Kim A pioneering youth worker, advocate and trail-blazing community organizer, has died at the age of 64 at his home in San Francisco on Wed., April 4, 2007. His late father, Tom Hak Chun Kim, and late mother, Dora Yum Kim, were fond of calling him Tommy. He was renowned for his cooking as well as his passion to right wrongs. Tom was a native San Franciscan who grew up in Chinatown, organized in the Mission and lived in the Western Addition, enjoying all the cultures and diversity of people the city had to offer. Tom came from a family line of leaders. His grandfather Yum Man Suk was a leader of the Korean Independence Movement in California in the early 20th. century (Korea was under Japanese rule); his mother was the first Asian woman real estate broker in San Francisco in the 1950s and a leader of United Nationalities of San Francisco. Tom was also a friend and adviser to leaders such as State Senator Leland Yee, BART Board Member James Fang, Supervisor Thomas Hsieh, Redevelopment Commissioner and longshore leader Leroy King, Rev. Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani of Glide Church and former San Francisco Police Chief Fred Lau. A graduate of Polytechnic High School, Tom went on to become a longshoreman, a staunch member of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) and one of the original residents of St. Francis Square, an ILWU-built cooperative-owned apartment complex in the Western Addition. He would later serve on the Citizens Advisory Committee to the Mayor's Office of Community Development under Mayor Dianne Feinstein and receive an Award of Merit for his service to San Francisco. Tom was a co-founder and executive director of the Korean Community Service Center, co-founder of RAP (Real Alternatives Program), co-founder of the Asian American Social Work Training Center, co-founder of the National Asian American Psychology Training center, co-founder of the Asian Pacific Caucus of the Democratic Party, co-founder of Asian American Communities for Education, co-founder of the Asian Youth Substance Abuse Prevention (AYSAP) Consortium, president of the board of directors of Richmond Area Multi-Services (RAMS), and co-producer of Lest We Forget: Korean American Oral History Videos featuring pioneer Mary Paik Lee, Olympic diving champion Dr. Sammy Lee, and world War II hero U.S. Army Col. Young Oak Kim. Tom is survived by his sons, Michael (wife, Nancy), Eric (wife, Cindy); sister, Darlyne Rickard (husband, Rick); brothers Kyle and Kerry; nephews, Marc Rickard and Chris Kim and six grandchildren, Thomas J. Kim, Taylor A. Kim, Alexander M. Kim, Shina D. Kim, David Y. Gray and Eric J. Gray. Memorial services will be at Cypress Lawn, Colma on Thursday, April 12, 2007. Visitation begins at 12 noon and formal services at 2 p.m.