 Col. Lee Chul-won, left, and U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Stephens |
One year was all it took for former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer Kathleen Stephens to make a lifelong impact while teaching at Yesan Middle School.
In 1975 Col. Lee Chul-won, deputy chief of a border unit attached to the 3rd Army, said he was motivated to study English harder and pursue a career that could help him give back the same way he benefited from his lessons from Stephens, now the U.S. ambassador to Korea.
When Lee, now 49, first met Stephens, he was a first-year student at the middle school in Yesan, South Chungcheon Province, and was also the class president,
“Stephens was the first Western person that I, and probably all my classmates, had met in our lives. Because of this, everything about her became big news and spread rapidly throughout the entire town back then,” recalled Col. Lee.
“Stephens was tall and thin. She was in her early 20s. And she sometimes took bicycle rides and played tennis. At the time the people living in the small town were not familiar with such scenes.”
Lee was in an English conversation class that she taught.
“As we were so poor at the time, it was common for students to wear worn-out socks. I remember she used to tease us after seeing this. She brought her lunch box and shared her meal with the students.”
Lee remembers Amb. Stephens as the “princess of the Milky Way.”
“She often wore colorful floral print dresses. I thought that she must be a princess. I should confess that I had a major crush on her at that tender age of 14.”
Lee, who is now married with three adult children, said his wife was so jealous whenever he made such remarks.
The military officer’s ties with the U.S. ambassador drew media attention after she made a posting about her memories of Lee as a student following their reunion on her blog.
The U.S. ambassador remembered him as a “bright, hard-working and responsible student.”
Lee said he sent a letter to Stephens in June after reading newspaper articles that she will leave Korea soon for a new position.
“I knew that she came here as an ambassador three years ago. I felt an urge to meet her before she left the country, and that’s why I wrote to her,” he said.
After receiving his letter, Stephens invited Lee to the Embassy to catch up on the past 35 years since they parted ways. Lee said they had a very nice conversation.
“I told her that I had a secret crush on her 35 years ago when I was a first-year middle school student. She was embarrassed,” he said.
In 1976, Lee left the Yesan Middle for a different school in a nearby big city. Stephens also headed out to another city in South Chungcheong Province for a different assignment there.
After high school, Lee entered the Korea Military Academy and served in several foreign missions. His past tours of duty include the Philippines, East Timor and Iraq.
In 2000, he taught English and Korean to children in East Timor on the sidelines of the Korean troops’ peace-keeping operation there.
“Children there played outside and walked around barefoot. They went hungry but seemed happy,” he said.
“When they grow up, I believe that they will probably hope to visit Korea to reconnect with Koreans as they witnessed Korean soldiers at home. I know this because that’s how I felt growing up after meeting Stephens.”
Lee said his East Timor mission reminded him of his experience with the former American Peace Corps volunteer.
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