Tai Young Huh

HUH, Tai Young – 94 of Halifax passed away Saturday, December 15, 2012, at the QEII Health Sciences Centre, Halifax Infirmary site. Born in Korea, he was the son of the late Jae Jik Huh and Bong Choi.

A brief biography:

Dr. Tai Young Huh was born on May 1, 1918 in Hoeryong, North Korea. As a child he followed a traditional Korean education involving calligraphy, ancestry worship and Confucianism. However, science had always been an interest for him and he ran off to Seoul at the age of 15, eschewing a traditional Korean education in favour of a scientific one. After a year of elementary school education in Seoul, he went to Japan to continue his education at the School of Engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, graduating with a degree in analytical chemistry

During his college years he became a devout Christian and on vacations back in Korea, he attended a local church. It was there that he met the attractive young organist to whom he would ultimately become a dutiful and devoted husband.

Following Korea's liberation from Japan in 1945, he returned to Korea and become a professor of chemistry at a prestigious northern university. When the Allies reached his city during the Korean War, he and his colleagues joined the South Korean army. It was a turbulent time that resulted in a separation from his wife and infant daughter for over a year. Miraculously, they were reunited in Pusan near the end of the war.

Following the war, he became a Professor of Chemistry at Ewha Womans University. In 1956, he came to Canada as a visiting professor where he contributed to cancer research, amongst other things, in the Department of Biochemistry at Dalhousie University. His fascination with laboratory science and excellence in research led to an extension of his stay as a Research Associate. In 1962 his wife, Tae Lyong (Sunomy), and daughter, Mia, joined him in Canada as the first landed Korean immigrant family in Nova Scotia. His family grew soon thereafter in 1965 with the birth of his son, Gene. After earning his Ph.D. in 1968, Dr. Huh continued to work at Dalhousie carrying out research contributing to our understanding of the properties of DNA and RNA, until his retirement at age 66.

By the early 1970's, the Nova Scotian Korean immigrant population had grown large enough to form a Korean association. A highly respected member and the eldest in the community, Dr. Huh was the association’s first president. In the early 1990s, a time of rapid growth in the Korean community, he also played a major role in the creation of the first Korean Presbyterian Church in Halifax.

Though retired, Dr. Huh continued to demonstrate his dedication to uncovering the mysteries of our world, spending most of his time further pursuing research in the patterns of our natural world. His neighbours in the South end Halifax would surely be familiar with seeing him on his daily walks – in part taking him to and from the Libraries on Dalhousie Campus, and in part taking care of his health. He was notably spry for his age, and friends and family would easily describe his as a bright and curious mind – remarkably so for a person of his age as he reached his nineties. Not only a man of science, Dr. Huh also followed creative pursuits in his retirement, spending time tending grape vines in his garden, and practicing the art of Asian Calligraphy.

His was a remarkable life, long lived and well spent until its end on the evening of December 15th when he passed peacefully at the age of 94, surrounded by his loving family and friends. He will be remembered by his family as a strong, quiet and loving husband, father and grandfather with a bright smile, fierce intellect, unwavering devotion and unquenchable curiosity. We will carry his spirit in our hearts and continue to live inspired by his life.

Dr. Huh is survived by his wife Sunomy, his daughter Mia (Greg Bradley), Halifax, son Gene (Peggy Kolm), California; and granddaughter Rena Kulczycki, Halifax.

Funeral service was held at 2 p.m. Thursday, December 20, 2012, at Cruikshank’s Funeral Home, 2666 Windsor St. Halifax, NS. Rev. Bong Kook Kim officiated. Burial at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to charity of your choice.

The Huh family would like to express their heartfelt appreciation to close friends in the Korean community.

To view or to place an on-line message of condolence, please visit:

www.cruikshankhalifaxfuneralhome.com