Jasun C. Chung

Jasun Chung was born on October 24, 1934, in the city of Yanji, Manchuria. She was the third of seven children. Her family had moved to Manchuria to escape Japanese rule in Korea. After Korea was liberated, her family moved back to Seoul, Korea in 1946. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, the family fled south to Busan, then Jinhae. She graduated from Sudo Girls High School. She attended Ewha Woman’s University and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature. She met the gospel in 1953 and was faithful her entire life.

Her first job was teaching English at Chuncheon, where she met her future husband, Wan Sang. After marrying in 1960 and starting a family, in 1966 she moved to the US. She got her Master’s Degree in Education from Syracuse University in 1970. After moving to Evanston, Illinois in 1975, she taught in the Chicago school district for twenty-five years. She pioneered the Korean Bilingual Education program and was recognized for her work. In 1980 she wrote the supplementary guide for use with Korean-speaking students in Grades K-3 in Chicago's public schools. She was passionate about her work, and in her spare time she ran Korean language schools to help benefit the community. She had a positive impact on her students and their parents.

In her retirement, she enjoyed spending time with family and traveling. She visited Korea every year for fifteen straight years and was able to visit her hometown of Yanji in 2015 for the first time since she left in 1946.

She was married for sixty-two years to her late husband Wan Sang Chung. She is survived by her three children Timothy and wife Susan, Mark and wife Yonjung, and Isabel; two grandchildren Aaron and Paula; two sisters Haesun Chang and Youngsun Choi; brother Hangseon Choi and his wife Hyunsook; seven nieces and nephews; and fifteen grand-nieces and grand-nephews. Her younger sister Wonsun Hyon passed away in 2022. Two others passed on early.