Chang Lee-wook

Chang Lee-wook was an educator and independence activist before becoming ambassador. Born in 1895, he joined An Chang-ho's Hung Sa Dan in the United States, graduated from Dubuque, and earned a Columbia education degree. He returned to lead Sinsong School and was imprisoned during the colonial authorities' 1937 campaign against the Suyang Donguhoe. After liberation, he held senior educational posts and briefly served as president of Seoul National University in 1948. ¹

His educational outlook combined American progressive teaching with opposition to communism. Historian An Jong-chol identifies John Dewey and William Heard Kilpatrick among his teachers and emphasizes Chang's defense of academic freedom and legal procedure. During the Korean War and its aftermath, Chang also reached listeners through the Voice of the United Nations Command's Korean broadcasts. ^{1, 2}

Appointed ambassador under the Second Republic in 1960, Chang rejected the military coup of May 1961 as illegitimate and resigned. He stayed in the United States for several years, working with Korean students and Hung Sa Dan publications, before returning in 1964. His later writing and public education promoted An Chang-ho's ideas. He died in 1983. ¹