Young Pio Kim, 1926~2013

Professor Kim passed away on April 24, 2013 with our great sorrow. On the day, he finished his long journey on Dermatology. He was born on June 23rd 1926 from Ok-Gwa, Chonnam Province, Korea. As a great teacher and student, who devoted his whole life to study Dermatology. Despite of his official retirement at his age of 65-years-old, he was enthusiastic to acquire new information on dermatology until he could not attend meetings due his poor health problems. In his last two and half years, he suffered from metastatic renal cell carcinoma. We all remember him as an excellent attendee to ask questions to presenters, sitting in a front seat at meeting rooms.

Professor Kim had a goal of his life to study the skin of normal and abnormal conditions. Due to his amazing endeavor, Department of Dermatology, Chonnam National University Hospital (CNUH) has established distinguished accomplishments in clinical and research fields. As a hard worker himself, Professor Kim was a strict teacher to push us to do our best in both clinics and researches. His mottos were "1) Learn and Think, 2) Information, and 3) Research". To achieve higher goal as a dermatologist, he moved to U.S.A. in 1957. During the 5 years of his staying, he was trained at world-wide famous departments of Dermatology in Philadelphia, New York City, and Chicago. Among many his teachers, he respected Professor Stephen Rothman at the Chicago University as a great mentor, and was very proud of being trained under Professor Rothman. He did his best to serve Department of Dermatology, CNUH when he worked as a staff for 39 years (1953-1991) after he returned from U.S.A. in 1962. He established our independent clinical and research laboratories of biochemistry, histopathology, and mycology at CNUH. He wanted to be a good researcher; in addition, he wanted to be a good clinician as well. He was interested in dermatological surgery, which led us to set-up Mohs' micrographic surgery. Also, He extended his interests to arts (paint and classical music), histories, and human sciences.

Professor Kim was one of pioneers to set up the Korean Dermatological Association (KDA). During his service as a Secretary General (3rd, 5th) and a Chairman (29th) of the Korean Dermatology Association (KDA), he established a framework of the KDA. He also had a strong hope to establish the similar kind of to the SID in Korea, which led him to found the Korean Society for Investigative Dermatology (KSID) in 1987. Just before his death, he donated his money to establish the Foundation of KSID. In 1979, he founded the Korean-Japanese Dermatological Joint Meeting held biannually. He actively communicated with foreign Dermatological Societies such as America, England, Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Japan, China, and Southeast Asian nations, and became honorable member of the societies. He had many outstanding dermatologists abroad as his intimate colleagues. Due to his invitation of many renowned dermatologists around the world, we had enjoyed meeting internationally well-known dermatologists in our department, I am proud of Professor Kim to be my great mentor and teacher in my life. His achievements during his life cannot be forgotten, and will stimulate us to do our best as he had done during his life-long. I pray for his peaceful rest in the heaven with our unforgettable memories.