The bereaved family of late Pastor So ByeongJik, who spent his entire life serving in the U.S., donated a scholarship fund of $10,000 to Sahmyook University, in accordance with his will.
Born in November of 1942, the deceased graduated from Sahmyook University as a theology major in 1970 and served in Daegu and the Busan area for two years. After marrying Ms. Im SunJa (one of the first class of graduates of Sahmyook University’s Department of Home Economics) in 1972, he moved to the U.S., graduated from the seminary of Andrews University in 1984, and was ordained as a pastor in the New York Conference in 1986.
Pastor So then served several churches as a senior pastor, including the Fort Worth Church in Dallas, the Houston Korean Church in Texas, the Riverside Korean Church, the Queens Korean Church in New York, and the Korean Central Church of New York until his retirement in September 2008. This faithful servant of God enjoyed retirement with his family in Washington and Arizona before entering into a peaceful rest in the Lord at the age of 78, in February 2021.
The donation ceremony of the scholarship fund was held at the president’s office of the Sahmyook University Centennial Memorial Hall on July 5, 2021. The ceremony was joined by the late pastor’s younger sister So JinAe, an adjunct professor at Sahmyook University’s Department of Art and Design, and her husband Park GwangSeon, a former director of Sahmyook Adventist Dental Hospital.
“Throughout his entire life in the U.S., he always cherished the fond memories of his four years at Sahmyook University, which he said were the happiest times of his life,” So’s family said. “He asked us to deliver this money to students with a calling to serve the Lord.”