I met Hoon the first day of classes our freshman year at Virginia Tech. We just happened to sit together, in the front row of the class of several hundred students. And from that day forward we were great friends. It was immediately apparent to me that Hoon was a funny and intelligent guy- and that he was so incredibly open minded and accepting of others. Everyone that knew Hoon, knew how generous he was with his friendship and with his time. While he didn’t wear it like a badge, he regularly helped others less fortunate than himself.
Some of my memories of Hoon- in those early college days, I remember getting into my car with him for the first time- he tuned the raidio to a hip hop station, turned it way up and started chair-dancing right there in the passenger seat, so much so that the car was swaying right along with him. I thought- this time and many others- Hoon makes college so much fun!
We studied together for our classes. Not that Hoon needed to study. He had a truly brilliant mind. I remember once he said “I thought of a cure for AIDS.” “What’s that”, I said skeptically- “Just give the AIDS patients Toxic Shock Syndrome” he said- then proceeded to give me a technical account of his rationale- which was far beyond my understanding.
We studied in a part of the library called the “quiet zone”. It didn’t take long before we were laughing uncontrollably and after getting evil glares from all of the others in the quiet zone we would retreat to a less ridged study spot. We would walk over to the lecture hall to check our grades. Usually he would have the very top grade in the entire class- and these were BIG classes- and- wasn’t English Hoon’s third language? Well, once or twice, my grade was just ever so much higher than his and he would say, in mock anger “Awe you beat me- I’ll have to study harder next time! How did you beat me!). It was all in jest though, Hoon was the first to congratulate you on any success.
One of my favorite examples of Hoon’s generosity and friendship was this incident I had with my roommates boyfriend eating all of my havarti cheese. Cheese is expensive and I called Hoon to complain- hours or so later- Hoon came over- with what must have been over 15 pounds of cheese! He could have just told me to get over it, but instead he made me feel better and gave me a good laugh.
Hoon joined us regularly for our family gatherings and my whole family loved him. When I introduced Hoon to my grandmother, I said “Nanny, this is my friend Hoon.” She said, “Who?”, I said, “Hoon!”, “Who” she said, “HOON!” I said. “Oh hi Moon, she said finally with a smile.” And Hoon just chuckled- and he didn’t mind that my grandmother called him “Moon” from then on.
When the year was turning from 1997 to 1998, Hoon came over to our house for our New Years celebration. That night he said, “This is going to be my year this year- it is the year of the tiger.” After our watching the ball drop, Hoon left to go home, confident that it was the beginning of a great year for him. On the way home, just past Damascus, he hit a patch of ice and ran into the curb of the median, breaking the wheel off the axel of his brothers’ nice new car. He called us to come and get him and as we were pulling up, a cop was writing him a ticket for wreck-less driving. On the bright side for 1998, Hoon graduated from Virginia Tech that spring with honors degrees in Biology, Biochemistry and Chemistry.
We stayed close friends during college and afterwards. Hoon was always there to celebrate when something needed celebrating. When Steve and I had our first child, Hoon and Amy drove down to meet our new guy- armed with Philly Cheese Steaks from two of the most famous Philly Cheese steak places, and Cigars and lots of smiles. Our son Ethan, who is 1 and a half now, loved Hoon and couldn’t take his eyes off of him. Hoon would have been a wonderful father some day, if his life hadn’t been cut so short.
I think Hoon was everyone’s best friend. He was somebody you could always confide in. If you were down in the dumps when you called him, you were smiling as soon as you heard his voice. I’d be at work, perhaps having a dull or stressful day, and I would get an email. “Hoon has sent you a Washington Post Article”- and there would be the article and a brilliantly insightful and hilarious one liner from Hoon. Like one with one science article he forwarded to me recently “ I’ll take one child and a dose of longevity”. Or the trailer to a new years email “Happy new years, though it'll be a second late or early depending on your perspective of relativity on non-relative motion related to the space time field.”.
What is Hoon doing now? I have always thought that when you die you get answers to all of the unanswerable questions you had in life. Hoon is learning about why we exist in the first place, how we got here, explanations for string theory and alternate dimensions. He is discovering how incurable diseases could be cured and why people behave the way they do for better or worse. Hoon is picking the brains of great thinkers like himself, laughing with Einstein and Aristotle and singing and dancing with Ella Fitzgerald.
Lets all keep with us for the rest of our lives Hoon’s curiosity, generous spirit and open mind. Hoon had an endless supply of love for his family, his friends and his community. Lets all try to pass that on to everyone we know. Hoon has touched so many lives in such a positive way- and his impact will continue to be felt for many years to come. We love you Hoon
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