Wonwha Ryu (STH'85)
Rev. Wonwha Lee Ryu
(June 16, 1927 – February 12, 2017)
Wonwha was born during the Japanese colonial occupation of Korea in a mountain village near Gapyeong to a slash-and-burn farming family. At a time when girls were not encouraged to receive education, she went to Ehwa Woman’s University in Seoul, because her Christian parents insisted that their ten children, both boys and girls, all receive a college education.
She received her BA in Christian Social Work in 1950 as the Korean War broke out and, herself a war refugee, became a residential teacher at The Orphans Home of Korea in Jeju Island. Upon returning to Seoul, she became the Y-Teen Program Director at Seoul YWCA. In 1954, she was selected to participate in the International YWCA Leadership Project in New York, This nine-month sojourn in the USA opened her global horizon.
She got married to Ji Shik Ryu in 1955, back in Korea, and gave up her full-time position at the Y to raise their four children, but continued to volunteer at Seoul YWCA, serving in many key committees, later becoming a board member and Vice-President.
She received a certificate in counseling at Seoul National University in 1971, translated Psychology of Middle School Students by Hadana Isoko from Japanese to Korean (1972), and wrote The 50 Year History of YWCA in Korea (1975).
In 1977, at the age of 50, she immigrated to the USA with her husband and four children, became a member of Glendale: First UMC, and began her immigrant life as a day-care center aid and an operator of a dry-cleaning drop-off shop.
At the age of 55, she finally responded to her call and enrolled at Boson University School of Theology, receiving an M.Div. in 1985. She was ordained Deacon at the age of 60 (along with her second son, Charles). She served as Associate Pastor at North Hollywood UMC (2 years), and as the Pastor of the First Korean UMC of Los Angeles (8 years). She was the first woman pastor-in-charge appointed to a Korean congregation. She retired in 1997 continuing to support and encourage younger women pastors.
Throughout her long life’s faith-journey, she traversed great socio-economic-geographical-cultural distances and overcame many limiting situations imposed on women. She is survived by her husband of 62 years, four children and four grandchildren with her first great grandchild expected.
–Rev. Charles Ryu (New York Annual Conference)