Generous rubber king recalled by family members as frugal man

Chung Jong-soo, the third son of self-made businessman Chung Seok-gyu, stands in front of the Sinyang Cultural Foundation based in Seoul National University on Dec. 30, 2015. / Korea Times

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Multimillionaire Chung Seok-gyu (1929-2015) was one of the country’s biggest donors who gave away 44 billion won ($38 million) before he died in May 2015 after a long illness.

Contrary to his generous donations, the self-made businessman was stingy with himself and his family.

The late Chung Seok-gyu, the founder of Taesung Rubber Chemicals and former chairman of the charity organization Sinyang Cultural Foundation / Courtesy of Sinyang Cultural Foundation

His third son Jong-soo said it was a torture for him to dine with his father at a restaurant because he always ordered just one dish and then shared it with his son. “I was embarrassed because I saw the waiter or the waitress with an uncomfortable facial expression whenever my father ordered like that,” he said. “It was understandable for them to feel uncomfortable about my father’s way because they were also in business to make money. It was natural for them to expect the two of us to order two dishes. So I didn’t blame them and rather felt sorry for my father.”

According to him, his father hated spending even a penny for something unnecessary and his wealth accumulation came at the expense of decent meals.

His rule of ordering dishes half the size of the group he went with also applied to his outings with his other family members.

While he was alive, his entire family — his wife, three sons and their spouses and children — met twice a year at restaurant for a family gathering. The self-made man ordered eight dishes if 16 people showed up and had one more if 17 people came.

Once their dining was over, he would always ask the waitress to put the leftovers in a box and take it to his workplace or home to eat.

“No matter what types of dishes he ordered, he never threw away any leftovers. He even asked to put Chinese noodles that were left in a box. Noodles tend to swell and become bad to eat but he didn’t care,” Chung Jong-soo said. “None of our family members complained about him because we knew he was not going to change the lifestyle he had stuck with during his life.”

Born to a poor family in the slum district of the southeastern city of Masan, Chung had a difficult childhood. He had an off-campus job in the chemical industry to finance his tuition and living expenses while attending Seoul National University Chemical Engineering Department.

The self-made man founded Taesung Rubber Chemicals in 1967, 16 years after he had related work experience in the chemical industry.

His company produced a variety of rubber parts which were used in electronic devices, home appliances and automobiles. At its height, the Gumi City-based company had some 200 employees in the 1970s when demand for rubber parts was at an all-time high following Hyundai Group exporting Korea’s first mass-produced car — the Pony.

Chung’s company was small but competitive. He was called the rubber king after he successfully localized reclaimed rubber and other rubber-based products, and was honored by the government as well as the chemical industry many times for his dedication to rubber products.

In 2001, he sold his company to other businessmen. He used the profit he earned as seed money to establish the charity organization Sinyang Cultural Foundation at Seoul National University.

The foundation has since provided scholarships to over 1,200 students and funds to help scholars perform academic research. Chung served as chairman of the foundation until he died in 2015.

In his memoir, the late Chung said he had planned for a long time to give his wealth back to society.

“People lead their lives while interacting with others in a society. Sometimes they give a helping hand to others and at other times get help from them. Given such interdependency in our human lives, it is natural that we give back to society,” he wrote.

In the late 1980s, he first donated 1 billion won to Seoul National University Medical School to help staff there research untreatable diseases. This followed the death of his only daughter of such a disease. Around that time, Chung himself was also diagnosed with larynx cancer and had surgery.

He had since donated money to the Youngdeungpo District Office, to help elderly citizens who lived alone without family aid or those who raised their grandchildren without any proper income. The self-made businessman also gave scholarships to college students to help them continue their studies.

“My father had two primary groups that he helped — the elderly and college students,” his third son Jong-soo said. “He sympathized with college students who had difficulty financing their tuition because of his difficult childhood.”

He said his father’s exposure to Western society in the late 1950s and 60s could also have affected his decision to donate part of his wealth to society. From the late 1950s to the early 1960s, the late Chung had three short-term training programs in the United States, Europe and Japan to learn about rubber technology.

“My father told me several times about some American universities that have libraries being named after their donors. He said he was impressed by them and expressed his hope to be honored like that,” Chung Jong-soo said. “He was influenced by the Western tradition of giving back to society.”

The “rubber man” was a focused person. From his early childhood, Chung wrote in his memoir that he had two goals to achieve — he would become a person who would be of use to society and an unrivaled expert in his area.

He lived up to his commitments and donated about half of his wealth to help students, academics and elderly people.

Unlike his generous support for those groups, his son said, the late Chung consistently led a stingy lifestyle.

Before he died, the businessman was hospitalized for a month.

“My father and I kind of had an argument about which hospital room he would stay in. He insisted he be hospitalized in a double bed room and share the space with another patient to save money. But I insisted he be in a single bed room,” he said.

“I confronted him about his decision at that time because I thought he was old and rich enough to be hospitalized in a decent place.”

Chung died in 2015 at age 86.

When the self-made man announced he would give his wealth back to society, his third son said, none of his sons opposed or complained about their father.

“He himself established his business empire with his own efforts and hard work and thus all of thought that he was in a position to decide how he was going to use his money,” the son said.