The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    BTS producer encourages anticipation for future messages from group

  • 3

    From hip-hop idols to global superstars, BTS shatters records over decade

  • 5

    LIFE'S OLLE TRAILS 1How hiking Jeju's 437km of trails changed my life

  • 7

    Korea beats Nigeria to advance to semifinals at FIFA U-20 World Cup

  • 9

    Korea sees record-high number of flu patients for late spring

  • 11

    Election watchdog under fire for refusing to accept inspection

  • 13

    Concerns rise over Samsung SDS' growing intra-group transactions

  • 15

    Korean bio firms to seek new opportunities at int'l convention in Boston

  • 17

    Shipbuilding stocks rally over hope for 'super cycle'

  • 19

    Deep-rooted problems push nurses to handle doctors' duties

  • 2

    Senior citizens land low-wage jobs after retirement: report

  • 4

    Korean shorthairs among favorite cat breeds as more people choose to adopt pets

  • 6

    Tom Cruise to visit Korea to promote new film

  • 8

    S. Korea, Japan agree to prevent recurrence of maritime dispute

  • 10

    Korea denies discussion with EU on sending ammunition to Ukraine

  • 12

    Baritone Kim Tae-han wins Queen Elisabeth Competition

  • 14

    3 EXO members file antitrust complaint against SM Entertainment

  • 16

    K-food transforms global culinary industry

  • 18

    Korea, Japan agree to hold working-level talks to prevent repeat of 2018 maritime incident: Seoul's defense chief

  • 20

    Busan Film Festival accepts director Huh Moon-yung's resignation

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
National
  • Yun Byung-se
  • Kim Won-soo
  • Ahn Ho-young
  • Kim Sang-woo
  • Lee Kyung-hwa
  • Mitch Shin
  • Peter S. Kim
  • Daniel Shin
  • Jeon Su-mi
  • Jang Daul
  • Song Kyung-jin
  • Park Jung-won
  • Cho Hee-kyoung
  • Park Chong-hoon
  • Kim Sung-woo
  • Donald Kirk
  • John Burton
  • Robert D. Atkinson
  • Mark Peterson
  • Eugene Lee
  • Rushan Ziatdinov
  • Lee Jong-eun
  • Chyung Eun-ju and Joel Cho
  • Bernhard J. Seliger
  • Imran Khalid
  • Troy Stangarone
  • Jason Lim
  • Casey Lartigue, Jr.
  • Bernard Rowan
  • Steven L. Shields
  • Deauwand Myers
  • John J. Metzler
  • Andrew Hammond
  • Sandip Kumar Mishra
Tue, June 6, 2023 | 04:38
Tom Plate
Remembering Father Day
Posted : 2012-01-11 16:58
Updated : 2012-01-11 16:58
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link

Tom Plate
By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES ― How should the worth of a life be weighed? For when a phenomenon like Father John P. Daly, S.J., dies, that’s a question you start asking yourself. What is a life worth?

In his own over-intellectualized Harvard way, T.S. Eliot used to tantalize around that question with this unforgettable line from the “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” poem: “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.”

But the life of Daly, a longtime faculty member of Loyola Marymount University (LMU) here, was immeasurably too unique and real for such sterile ― not to mention sardonic ― gradations. On a life canvas that would have filled up the rooms of a mansion, this Jesuit visionary, a child of the U.S. Midwest, took Catholic America into Asia basically as an educational pioneer.


Late Father John P. Daly
He more or less made Korea his home shortly after taking the Jesuit final vows in 1963, and this was decades before the United States quite woke up to the fact that the Far East was a sleeping giant that would find us unprepared upon its awakening. As the keen official appreciation by LMU’s President David W. Burcham aptly puts it: “Father Daly’s lifelong passion was to foster understanding between Asia and the United States.”

It is among the good people of South Korea that Daly was so well known. He put Sogang University on the global education map not only as a vital university of Asia but also as a premium destination-fellowship experience for the best and brightest students in America.

With Daly as its leader for the critical dozen years of 1963-‘75, a span when the badly battered pro-U.S. South Korea was doggedly climbing out of the black hole of the Korean War, Sogang became a pearl in the strong string of Jesuit universities worldwide.

Not unlike Loyola Marymount here, the South Korean university, snug in its own college neighborhood in Seoul’s Sinchon district, became distinctive for its small-class sizes, personal attention from faculty and career-enhancing emphasis on practical and career skills.

I did not meet Father Daly at Sogang on my reporting trips to South Korea; we met a few years ago in Los Angeles when he (clearly desperate for a last-minute keynote speaker at a conference on Korean issues) called to ask me, in polite if evident desperation, to be that speaker. I was at UCLA at the time. That I am now on the LMU faculty can be attributed in part to this Jesuit magnetic hold over the course of the rest of my life.

After that, we arranged to meet more or less monthly at what I came to dub “Chez Jesuit.” This is the private dining cafe within the Jesuit Center on the far northern edge of the LMU campus. It is a modest and quiet place, save perhaps for the whirring noises emanating from the brains of the Jesuit priests plotting the next historic pivot in the march of God’s good work.

I guess I am a bit in awe of Jesuits. Well, I should be! I once studied, however briefly and ingloriously, to be a priest of the Franciscan Order. John used to kid me about that, asking why I hadn’t thrown in with the Jesuits. I answered, “Too hard, too much studying!” He laughed and rejoined, “No, that’s the Dominicans, not us!”

I doubt that, but I’ve never doubted that every minute Daly spent with me at Chez Jesuit was a special moment in my life. An hour analyzing the last Papal Encyclical or breaking down and then reconstructing the essential Jesuitical component of a proper liberal arts education would fly by like mere minutes ― and with the best mentor you could have.

If it had not been for his influence on my thinking and where I wanted to take my life, I doubt not only that I would be teaching at LMU; I also doubt that the New Asia Media website (lmu.edu/asiamedia) would exist today.

Created at UCLA, where it then fell victim to state budget cuts, the site was reborn last November. Daly urged me to offer it to students to see if they would respond to it. Indeed they have. He sure knew his students. As he laughed, “Resurrections can be a good thing!”

It’s very interesting: Until Daley became my friend, my major mentors had been famous print editors who were corrosively not of the next world. Men like Sir David English from London and Clay Felker and Jim Bellows in America. To say these journalism gents were of secular cloth would be to describe a tsunami as ― er ― slightly damp.

Daly, though practical, was cut from a different cloth. He was a man of God. In part that was his greatness. He will be greatly missed ― and not just by me. But definitely by me.

Occasional Korea Times contributor Tom Plate is the distinguished scholar of Asian and Pacific studies at Los Angeles-based Loyola Marymount University. “Conversations with Ban Ki-moon,” the fourth book in the bestselling series, “Giants of Asia” will be published in September by Marshall Cavendish Asia and by Random House Korea. Reach him at platecolumn@gmail.com.
 
wooribank
Top 10 Stories
1Korean shorthairs among favorite cat breeds as more people choose to adopt pets Korean shorthairs among favorite cat breeds as more people choose to adopt pets
2[ANALYSIS] S. Korean economy feared to follow in Japan's footsteps ANALYSISS. Korean economy feared to follow in Japan's footsteps
3Agency launched to offer exclusive support for overseas KoreansAgency launched to offer exclusive support for overseas Koreans
4Retailers use recycled, biodegradable plastic to attract eco-conscious consumers Retailers use recycled, biodegradable plastic to attract eco-conscious consumers
5Retail investors bet on wrong horse despite KOSPI rallyRetail investors bet on wrong horse despite KOSPI rally
6Embassy of Italy celebrates Republic Day Embassy of Italy celebrates Republic Day
7HD Hyundai, Hanwha Ocean to compete in Busan to sell naval ships HD Hyundai, Hanwha Ocean to compete in Busan to sell naval ships
8Ex-BOK economist to head KCCI's think tank Ex-BOK economist to head KCCI's think tank
9Stats agency to use Naver's AI chatbot to offer tailored data for firms Stats agency to use Naver's AI chatbot to offer tailored data for firms
10Korea's export dependency on China dips below 20% Korea's export dependency on China dips below 20%
Top 5 Entertainment News
1[REVIEW] 'The ODD Of Love' concert: Taeyeon shows why she is among K-pop's top vocalists REVIEW'The ODD Of Love' concert: Taeyeon shows why she is among K-pop's top vocalists
2Baritone Kim Tae-han wins Queen Elisabeth Competition Baritone Kim Tae-han wins Queen Elisabeth Competition
3Busan Film Festival accepts director Huh Moon-yung's resignation Busan Film Festival accepts director Huh Moon-yung's resignation
4[INTERVIEW] 'One Day Off' star Lee Na-young, director on creating subtle, feel-good series INTERVIEW'One Day Off' star Lee Na-young, director on creating subtle, feel-good series
5'HyeMiLeeYeChaePa' producer Lee Tae-kyung hopeful of second season 'HyeMiLeeYeChaePa' producer Lee Tae-kyung hopeful of second season
DARKROOM
  • Turkey-Syria earthquake

    Turkey-Syria earthquake

  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

CEO & Publisher : Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email : webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel : 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No : 서울,아52844
Date of registration : 2020.02.05
Masthead : The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group