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| Frederic H Dustin is hard at work surrounded by cats in this 2015 photo. / Courtesy of Robert Neff |
By Robert Neff
On the rainy morning of May 5 (Children's Day), Frederic H Dustin, the doyen of Jeju Island's expat community and the founder of Kimnyoung Maze, passed away after a long battle with health issues.
Born in Bellingham, Washington, on Jan. 12, 1930, he joined the military in 1951 and arrived in Korea on Easter Sunday 1952. After completing his service, he went back to school and obtained his degree, then returned to Korea as an English teacher, first at Yonhee University (now Yonsei) and then later at Chung-Ang University.
In the early 1960s he worked here as a gold miner. It was hard work and paid very little but, according to Dustin, it was one of the greatest periods of his life. It was hard to get a straight answer out of him for the sudden change of occupations ― depending on his mood and audience, he sometimes attributed it to the unwanted advances of a young woman who followed him from the United States and other times he confessed he just got tired of teaching. An injury at the mine led to new careers: copy editor at a newspaper, auditor with a religious organization and even a fishmonger.
But it was the success of helping to start and manage a poultry company that eventually led him to Jeju Island. When the company was sold, Dustin acquired his 'golden egg' ― a large plot of land on the island. At about the same time, he fell in love with a missionary named Marie-Louise and asked her to marry him. Just prior to the wedding, what should have been a time of bliss was darkened by her diagnosis of terminal cancer. He urged her to marry him and she agreed ― asking him to build her a house on Jeju, which he did. He lost her two years later. A wind-battered pecan tree, planted in her memory, still stands in front of the house he built for her ― a testament of his love.
Despite his tragic loss, he was determined to stay and the land became his field of dreams. Over the course of nearly two decades, he planted thousands of trees: mulberry, cedar, orange, pecan and kiwi but most died due to the poor soil, typhoons and forest fires. Mother Nature even destroyed his fields of garlic and carrots. But he refused to give up.
He had several "pipe dreams" ― as he described them several decades later ― for the land. Some, like a hunting lodge and a school camp, never really got off the ground, while others, like his boat-building enterprise, enjoyed a degree of success. But one dream did become a reality ― the establishment of the Kimnyoung Maze in the late 1980s. By the early 2000s it was one of the most popular and successful attractions on Jeju Island and continues to draw crowds.
In previous years, visitors to the maze often found him sitting out in front of his office, chewing gum while surrounded by the stars of the maze ― a large number of friendly cats who relished having their heads scratched and tummies rubbed. Always willing to talk, Dustin delighted in telling anecdotes of his long and interesting life in Korea, occasionally spicing them up with an exaggeration here or there to make them more entertaining.
Success meant responsibility. He was a firm believer in giving back to the community and made large donations to the Cheju National University Hospital, local schools, students of all ages and scholars ― Korean and foreign. He also continued to teach and support a class for senior citizens called "Seniors in the Schools."
His efforts were not forgotten. His funeral drew large numbers of friends, employees, colleagues, students and members of his Korean family. And even the rain could not dampen the spirits of those who witnessed his remains being returned to his beloved maze on May 7. He will be missed but never forgotten. May he rest in peace.
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