김연준 金連俊

Educator who founded Hanyang University, and composer and journalist who left some 1,500 art songs

Life & career

Kim Yeon-jun (金連俊, 1914-2008) was a composer, journalist and educator born on 20 February 1914 in Myeongcheon, North Hamgyeong; his clan seat was Jeonju, his pen name Baeknam (白南), and he was a Baptist. Born to a wealthy Myeongcheon merchant, he took up the violin at eight and so came naturally to music; after Gyeongseong High School he entered the literature department of Yonhi College. Under Hyeon Je-myeong in the college music club he played violin and viola in the orchestra and appeared as second violin at the 15th autumn concert in 1936. In 1937 he gave the first baritone recital in Korea.

In July 1939, under the banner of national technology, he founded the Donga Institute of Engineering, the starting point of today's Hanyang University. After liberation he established the Hanyang Foundation in 1947 and reorganized it as Hanyang Evening Technical College; in July 1948 it was raised to Hanyang College of Engineering, the first four-year private engineering college in Korea, and he became its first dean. It became a comprehensive university with its present name in 1959; he was president of Hanyang University for fifteen years from 1959 to 1973 and then chairman of the Hanyang Foundation until 2007.

Besides education he served as head of sports associations, founded the Daehan Ilbo and the Christian Newspaper, and was president of the Korean League for the Defense of Human Rights and head of a campaign for human rights in North Korea. As a composer he held 24 recitals of his works and wrote countless art songs such as I Will Live in the Green Mountain, publishing Kim Yeon-jun 1,500 Art Songs and a hymn collection; his books include Baeknam Munjip and Practice of Love. He received the Order of Civil Merit Moran Medal in 1970, the Mugunghwa Medal in 1996 and the Geumgwan Order of Cultural Merit in 1998, won the 1979 music prize (composition) for the 500th anniversary of the University of Tubingen, and received honorary doctorates from universities in several countries. He died on 7 January 2008, and the Baeknam Prize in engineering, music and human-rights service was established in 2013 in his memory.

The Origin of Hanyang University

The Donga Institute of Engineering, established in July 1939, became Hanyang Evening Technical College (1947) and Hanyang College of Engineering (1948) and in 1959 the comprehensive Hanyang University. Hanyang College of Engineering was the first four-year private engineering college in Korea.

Descendants

See also the Jeonju Kim clan page.

Other 전주 김씨 figures