Sanghwan Howard Kim's Obituary
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
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