민공기 교수님은 Laguna Woods에서 본인 이웃에 사시며, 글에서 보시다싶히 서울의대 민헌기 교수님의
동생입니다. 교수님의 부인께서는 본인에게 고등학교 졸업장을 주신 김원규 교장님의 큰딸이 되셔서
본인과 인연이 많은 부부이십니다.

오늘 6.25의  65주년을 맞이하여 민교수님의 투고에 감사 드립니다. 혼란하기 짝이 없던 그 시절에
무사히 살아남은 우리들이 무척 축복받은 사람이라는것을 새삼스러이 느끼게 됩니다.

아울러 6.25전쟁에서 희생된 수많은 생명들의 명복을 비는 바입니다.

운영자의 sentiment 에 동감합니다.

내가 의예과 2년때, 1960년쯤이라고 생각됩니다, 내 바로밑의 남동생이 포천중학교를 시골에서 나오고,

경기고등학교를 수석으로 입학하는 우리집안의 영광이 있었는데, 내가 가족 대표로 입학식에 갔다가 

김원규 교장님의 사무실로 초청되어 memorable 한 시간을 가진 인연이 있고 

민헌기 교수님과는 1977년  서울대부속병원 내과과장으로 계실때

11년만에 귀국방문하는  본인에게 한달동안 교환내과교수로 일할수있는 기회를 만들어 주셨습니다.

지금까지 그당시의 fond memory를 cherish 합니다.

I feel very fortunate in that my life had chances to cross the brief personal moments of these two great men's lives.

Korean War Memorial

할배께서 미국을 방문한 극작가 성기웅(조카)을 데리고 ...

기막힌 6.25 이야기, 그리고 해피엔딩!

잘 읽었습니다.

민공기 교수님의 사모님이 제 여고 동창(은퇴한 마취과의사)의 큰 시누님이네요.

남편과 사별하고, 갑자기 왜 Laguna Woods로 갔나했는데...

이제야 이해가 됩니다.제친구 정말 좋은사람입니다.부탁합니다.

나는 6.25가 나던해 봄 새로 지은 집으로 이사를 왔다. 집이  완성된 것이 아니어서 일꾼들이 마무리를 하고 있는데 다들 수군거리기만 하고 도무지 일의 진척이 없었다. 그러나 나의 어린(8세) 마음에도 뭔가 불길한 감을 느낄 수 있었다.  

여름방학이 시작되자 ( 나의 고향은 경남 거창이니 나의 고향에 인민군이 7 월에야 들어 왔나 보다) 어머님이 나와 여동생을 부르더니 나에게 거창신씨 가첩과 미숫가루 봉투를 넣은 상자를 내 어깨에 걸어주며 외갓집으로 가라하신다. 쏟아지는 비에 불어난 개울에 쓸려 갈 뻔 한 것이 몇 번이던가!  20리를 걸어 외가에 도착하니 외할머니께서 안아 주셨다. 나는 불길한 마음에 귀가 멍 한 것 같았다. 위의 사진에 있는 내 조카가 같이 피난갔던 여동생의 아들이다. Korean War Memorial에서 잠간 그 이야길 해 주었다. 젊은이가 그때의 내 불길한 마음을 느꼈을까?

그때 어머님께서 주신 거창신씨 가첩은 부모님이 세상떠나실때 나에게 왔고, 그 얘길 듣던 내 아들이 Smithonian museum의 고서회복 전문가에게 부탁하여 너덜거리던 것이 제법 옛날  모습으로 돌아 왔다.

아아.... 아득한 옛날일이구나.

Dear 운영자

All the memories will fade away inevitably but thank goodness, not completely yet though my age reached to 77-not yet to 78!-. But who would forget the 6.25!  I am sure many, at least to my age group, would have an exceptional feeling/emotion to read Dr. Min GG's moving story.

Yes, I was on the 6th grade of elementary school in Seoul when the war broke out. But I do keep such fresh memories from the day of June 25 -we all saw the army trucks heading to the North  along DonAmDong street on Sunday afternoon we all cheered!- till we are back home to Seoul when the war was ended. We took refuge to south crossing Han River early morning of June 28 (after the bridge was blown up!), narrowly escaping 인민군  and had to walk down to PyongTaek to catch the train to south/DaeGu so that I missed all the rampage. But such painful memory with the fear of recurred war gave some motivation to me for settling here in the U.S. like all other friends who immigrated to the U.S.

Nevertheless,  민헌기 교수 was one of my mentors during my senior years of med school through my residency; because of his influence I almost took the internal medicine than the surgery. Indeed, I was so fascinated then, to the endocrinology that I bought three volume/full sets of Danowski's endocrinology textbook through  BUMMOONSA book company to study seriously but on the last moment, I took the surgery to disappoint him.

But my personal/private mentoring to Prof. Min HG together with Prof. Han YongChul through my residency gave a crucial impact to establish my career as a clinician. Indeed, I still recall Prof. Min HG as a typical aristocrat-YANGBAN- with high integrity - never raised the voice keeping calm position like British gentleman, cautioning me gently on my hot temper whenever he had a chance.

Regretfully, I was too much occupied with daily struggling during my tenure in Seoul through the era of '90 to get back to him to refreshing the neglected relationship. But by all means I consider Prof. Min HG as one of most influential mentors in my early days of SNUMC & SNUH, despite less than 10 relatively short (?)  period of my life, till I left Seoul 1968 leaving such landmark memory to me.

Wish to extend my best to Prof. Min HG, born aristocrat, different from others!

Warm regards,

BB Lee-'63

P.S. Is there any way to get Prof. Min HunGi's email address?

Hi, BB 선배님;

Just like you, somehow, I have a vivid "technicolor-cinemascopic" memory of 6.25
while a lot of other memories in other times had faded away.
Obviously, the incidents of  6.25 must have been such a shock in my life that I could not forget about the enormous
details of the war and the life of my family through it.
I can endlessly bring up the memories of those days from about 1950 (beginning of 6.25) to 1953 (환도 to Seoul).
It was from my 4th year at 청계국민학교 near 명동, 서울 to the first year in my 중학교 in Pusan.
Maybe, my brain was smartest during those days and then had become dumb afterwards. Ha, ha, ha.
Now, at my 76, I have become most dumb and stupid. I can't believe that I can still run the website.
OK, I am going to shut up about 6.25, otherwise, it will become endless.. all day, all night !!

Back to the main topic, regarding Professor 민헌기, he was truly a gentleman as you said in various terms,
like 양반, 귀족, and high 품격. I love your expressions as they are/were so true.

During my medical school days, most of the professors (probably 90%) were arrogant and in bad temper.
I had been arrogant and full of temper myself but they beat me by a mile or more. ㅎ, ㅎ, ㅎ.
In my mind, I told them silently, "Because you are miserably empty in your confidence and professional integrity."

I can pick three professors who carried respectable integrity then. One of them is Professor 민헌기.
I am pretty sure that almost all my smart classmates would agree on that.
Another two were a professor in anatomy and one in Internal medicine (He was 경의전 출신).
Their names just went hiking out of my brain now. I told you I am dumb now.

Thinking about Professor 민헌기, I can't help thinking that his younger brother, Professor 민공기,
is almost a split image of his older brother in his overall manners and integrity.

I will try to get the e-mail address of Professor 민헌기.

Dear 운영자

Good to know we are still able to make a sound (?) communication at least on good(?) old days though embarrassingly the forgetfulness is getting worse (at least I still have no trouble to call my wife's first name). Indeed, the neurologists claim the memory of younger days will remain  intact till the last as islands in our brain even after full blown senile dementia. But even those memories in younger days also are fading away rapidly in these days to make me worry.  

Most embarrassing moment is NOT to be able to recall lifetime friends' name to call while you introduce him to the public/audience- it did happen twice already to me!-. So that's the way it goes, buddy!

Nevertheless, a professor in anatomy you mention must be young Prof. Sung KiJoon (if not  old Prof. Na SeJin) from whom I learned the photography systematically from scratch. He was simply fantastic gentleman I adored dearly. He later had a thyroid cancer surgery by Dr. Min ByongChul- I had a special privilege to assist as the first Neben- right before I left Korea in 1968 so that while I was in Richmond, I regularly sent synthroid to him till locally available.

However, there were quite a few 경의전 출신among the professors in internal medicine and some were really excellent as I recall like Prof. Chun JongWhie of infectious disease.

Warm regards,

BB Lee