Sanghwan Howard Kim

Sanghwan Howard Kim (December 3, 1937- August 5, 2025) Sanghwan Howard Kim, beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother, passed away peacefully on August 5 at his home after fighting cancer for over 3 and a half years. He was 87. He was born in 1937 in Korea, the third son of five brothers, when it was still under occupation by Japan. When he was 13, he left his home to study in Seoul but had to evacuate when the Korean War began two months later. Sanghwan had to travel some 150 miles to return home through the countryside with two other boys, mostly walking and sometimes riding one bicycle that they shared. After enduring the war as well as significant personal loss (his father, family property), Sanghwan went on to study Chemistry in college. He did very well and upon the school’s recommendation to pursue work in Japan, he then left Korea when he was 28 years old. He lived in Japan for three years, working as a research scientist for Lotte Corporation. He enjoyed his life in Japan, discovered a love for baseball, and formed friendships that lasted his whole lifetime. He thought about returning to Korea afterwards but decided to pursue continuing his studies in Canada. In 1968 he married Bokja Kim in Toronto, Canada. Their wedding was in a church surrounded by 70 guests including some family but mostly new friends they had already made in their new country. They raised two daughters, Helen and Jeanyi, who both became professional violinists, which was not surprising given Sanghwan’s and Bokja’s shared love of classical music. Sanghwan’s passion for music started when he was very young at age 5, when he began hiding out in the attic of his family’s home to regularly listen to classical music records that he alone in the family enjoyed. In college, attending classical music halls to listen to recordings with his closest friend (who happened to be his future wife’s older brother Young Chang) was his daily pastime. His favorites mostly included the music of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Handel and Schubert, but also Strauss, Sousa and even some popular singers such as Jim Reeves. Music remained an everpresent part of his life, whether he was listening to it or accompanying his daughters to all their music lessons, rehearsals and performances. In 1977 he earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Waterloo. He worked hard through college and two Masters of Science programs to get to that point. He and his family spent one year (1977-78) in Bozeman where he completed Post-Doctoral work at the University of Montana. While living out west, he especially savored the mountainous scenery, learning how to fly-fish, and visiting Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks with his family for the first time. Sanghwan was then offered a position as Senior Scientist at Bendix Aerospace and moved with his family to Baltimore to work there until 1988. In 1985, he became a citizen of the United States, and while living in Baltimore he also became a loyal and enthusiastic Orioles fan. After leaving Bendix in 1988, he formed his own company, Global Merit Development Inc. His company specialized in food science development and trading, and his biggest partner in this work was Eiwa Trading Company in Tokyo, Japan. He maintained Global Merit until 2021. At the same time, he also worked to further the development of an idea he formed years earlier. One of his proudest accomplishments was earning a U.S. patent in 2018 for this idea, a method of measuring ozone depletion in the atmosphere (“Real Time Ozone Layer Monitoring Using Ion Mobility Spectrometry”). Sanghwan and Bokja (who had adopted the names Howard and Judy when they moved to the U.S.) moved to West Virginia in 1997. They loved the beauty of the area, their friends and neighbors, and the home they built, where they hosted many visitors. They actively kept up some of their favorite activities, which included hiking at Harper’s Ferry, attending ballroom dance classes, and caring for the considerable yard of their home. During this time, he and Bokja took many trips with their friends and traveled all over the U.S. and the world, returning to Korea and Japan, visiting China, Europe, the UK, Alaska, and more. They also continued to return regularly back to Toronto to visit with the family and friends still living there and who they kept in close touch with. They became first proud in-laws to their new sons Stephen and Sascha, and then proud grandparents traveling often to the Midwest to help take care of their new grandkids. In recent years, they also became involved with the Korean United Methodist Church’s Senior Academy in McLean, Virginia, where Sanghwan taught a Japanese class for seniors, learned how to make and edit movies, and sang in the Ungsoo Senior Academy Choir. The community they found there was very rewarding and meaningful for both Sanghwan and Bokja. Meanwhile, until he was diagnosed with cancer, Sanghwan never stopped working to further his patented scientific work. Every day of his life was spent with great purpose. Sanghwan is survived by his wife Bokja, his daughters Helen Kim Lee (Stephen) and Jeanyi Kim-Mandl (Sascha); his four grandchildren, Josh, Allison, Miranda, and Nikolas; and 2 brothers, Sang Yun Kim and Sang Soo Kim. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Ungsoo Senior Academy, Korean United Methodist Church of Greater Washington, 1219 Swinks Mill Road, McLean VA 22102. Online condolences may be made to the family at www.loudounfuneralchapel.com

Sanghwan Howard Kim

December 3, 1937 - August 5, 2025