Dear Professor Chang,

    I have now read every word of your 249-page, inspirational book, Destiny of a Running Horse, and my admiration for you and your lifetime of achievement is higher than Mt. Everest. All your sacrifices and superhuman work ethic create an image of a role model we mere mortals could never match. Two words come to mind--paradigmatic and nonpareil. I consider you an intellectual giant with humility and a profound respect for the dignity and worth of every man, woman and child struggling to survive on this beautiful blue planet of Earth. You warmly embrace all creatures and epitomize the vision of Jefferson's declaration that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, including golf, fishing, love of family, truth and beauty.

    In high school I had the night watering job on our little nine-hole golf course that cost me $2.50 a season to play. I walked all night changing the sprinklers on the greens while communing with night birds, crickets and croaking frogs and, if hot weather dictated, came back the next day to wet down the edges of what to me was holy ground and remains sacrosanct even today.  The sight of a giant rainbow trout breaking water with my French Mepps #2 lure in its mouth gave me an unbelievable thrill as I waded up the Arkansas River in Colorado under the towering peaks of the 14,000-foot Collegiate Range.

    Soul brother may be a presumptuous expression, but I have never felt closer to another human being than I have with you as I read your incredible journal of your journey through a richly rewarding life.

Gratefully yours,

Dave

Notice: Book Signing Event

Won Chang, a resident of the Village, will be signing copies of his latest book, Destiny of a Running Horse, at Clubhouse # 7 on Monday, August 22, from 4:00 until 7:00 p.m. Korean rice cakes and refreshments will be provided, and a donation of $10.00 or more to the Korean-American Club is suggested to receive a copy of his book.

Destiny of a Running Horse is the story of a Korean-American journalism professor, whose destiny came under the sign of the “running horse.” It seeks to examine that destiny and takes a fond look back at the things he did to accomplish his goals along the way.

Won Chang tells his readers, “My career was centered on the teaching of journalism at the University of Missouri. I was honored to be awarded the O.O. McIntire Distinguished Chair Professorship and worked as a department chair, director of the Stephenson Research Center, and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research. I supervised thirty-three doctoral dissertations, wrote sixteen books, spearheaded the use of word processing in printing newspapers, helped establish and modernize newspapers in Asia, and motivated young journalists all over the world.”

“Now, as a retiree, I’ve settled in a California retirement community called Laguna Woods Village. My destiny, however, still keeps me running. I travel the world and search for renewed meaning in my life after retirement. I’ve also been searching for wisdom by reading many books and enjoying the natural wonders of the mountains and beaches and practicing my favorite sports, golf and fishing.”

“The biggest realization of my retirement life is that my own existence was only a tiny particle of the universe and that the real value of my life is found in my wife, family, and friends. They’ve all helped me reach the point where I am now, and having them in my life is far greater than anything I could own or possess. I have a strong determination to continue working for them. That belated realization provides me the answer to the question: What meaning does life hold for me now?”

   I’m a systems analyst, trained to study complex organizations like our Laguna Woods Village system, which needs to be studied if we are to make it work better—and if elected, I promise to conduct that research.

   I’m highly qualified to gather information about community issues and to analyze that data for publication. I’ve conducted hundreds of such studies and I taught many journalists to do similar studies over the course of my thirty-year teaching career.

   Many residents have expressed to me that one of the major challenges for our community is keeping our assessments down while maintaining our programs and pleasant living environment. I promise to work hard to find ways to meet those challenges.

   I’m a trained parliamentarian and team player, skilled in developing consensus among people of varying backgrounds and opinions. As a retired college professor, I’m also an experienced communicator and I’ll use my communication skills to facilitate a meaningful exchange of ideas between Village residents and the Third Mutual Board.

I came to the United States with just $50 in my pocket and ended up becoming a college professor after completing my B.A. in two years, my M.A. in 18 months, and my Ph.D. in 19 months.

Over the past 30 years I've taught scores of journalists how to gather information about social trends and issues and how to analyze the data. I’ll put those skills to work to identify and address areas where our community can be improved.

I’m also a trained statistician and have considerable experience in dealing with large budget and finance issues. As a retired college professor, I’m an experienced communicator and I’ll use my communication skills to facilitate the exchange of ideas between Village residents and the Third Mutual Board.

We had unseasonably cool weather in June, with highs in the upper 70s and lows in 50s in our area while the Midwest and East Coast were tormented by heavy rain and sizzling temperatures. I played more golf during the month of June than any other month in the past and discovered that the major cause of my mistakes was my wearing of eyeglasses for the first time. My doctor had found a distortion of my right eye and prescribed glasses so I could see the ball more clearly. I’m pleased to say that after a period of adjustment, I’m hitting the little white ball straighter and longer.

We have great news from Dr. Joseph Lee, who is relocating from his work with NIH to BioReliance (a branch of Avista Capital) as a senior scientist. Joe says, “This is a great thing for my career, since being promoted within five years is a necessity in today's biotech/pharmacology world.” Joe will be biking to work from his nearby home. Joe and Eunhee are going to take a vacation to the Grand Canyon for some camping and to Las Vegas for some gambling and entertainment the week of July 15–22. Congratulations!

I was invited to give a speech to the Women’s Club of Beauty Supply during their annual conference in Los Angeles on June 28. The topic they chose was “Women and the Work Force,” which wasn’t really in my field. However, I had been the keynote speaker on a one-hour MBC television program in Korea in 1998 on how “women can change the world” after the great financial fiasco that year.

My presentation focused on information technology as a potentially important area for women in the workplace and on the family as a critical factor for both working men and women. I used anecdotes and episodes from my own experience that made the audience laugh and cheer. The club is an amazing organization, and I enjoyed sharing my thoughts with them.

We were honored to be invited to lunch at the Gogooryo restaurant by Dean and Sue Mills, who were spending the holiday in their resort home in Oceanside. Their first son, Dr. Jason Mills, and his charming eleven-year-old daughter also joined with us. Dean, the dean of MU’s journalism school, is thinking about retiring after 22 years and many historical achievements, such as like creating the Reinhold Journalism Institute and celebrating the centennial of the first journalism school in the world. We wish them all the best.

Amazon.com has been selling more copies of my Destiny book after a very nice book review and an article about the background of my writing on the Korea Daily in Los Angeles, which is a branch of the JoongAng Ilbo in Korea. That book review can be found on the Internet at: http://www.koreadaily.com/news/read.asp?art_id=1209062  

The following statement will be printed on the ballot. I would like to have your comment or suggestion for my election in September.

 I am willing to make devoting my efforts toward the betterment of the community the top priority of my “retirement without retiring.”

I’m a hard-working person, as proved by my lifetime of achievements, including completing my BA in two years, my MA in 18 months, and my PhD in 19 months after coming to the United States from Korea with just $50 in my pocket. I’ve also written three books since moving to the Village.

I am a researcher, and over the past 30 years I’ve taught scores of journalists how to gather information about social trends and issues and how to analyze that data. I’ll put those skills to work to identify and address areas where our community can be improved. I’m also a numbers person and have considerable experience in dealing with large budget and finance issues.

As a retired college professor, I’m an experienced communicator and I’ll use my communication skills to facilitate the exchange of ideas between Village residents and the Third Mutual Board.

I’m a team player who possesses the patience and humility to look for—and find—solutions. At the University of Missouri, I chaired a committee with 50 doctoral faculty members, all of whom had their own ideas concerning any one issue.

April 2011

My “2011 New Year Resolution” and my report of a cruise to “Latino Tango Countries” were posted in the web site of the Seoul National University Medical Alumni Association in the United States by the help of Steven Kim(김성수), a retired surgeon and my golf partner. The articles were presented beautifully, and I hope you would visit the sites:

http://www.snucmaa.us/snumc1965/bbs/zboard.php?id=freeboard&page=1&page_num=30&select_arrange=headnum&desc=&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&keyword=&no=5561http://www.snucmaa.us/snumc1965/bbs/zboard.php?id=freeboard&no=5912I told you in my March note that my recent book, “Destiny of a Running Horse,” was published by the createspace.com, which would sell the book. I was wrong. The on-line publishing company sells the book to the author, and distribution of the book will be handled by the Amazon.com in the near future. An E-file copy also will be available from the Amazon with color pictures. The book is listed as follow:

Destiny of a Running Horse

Authored by Dr. Won Ho Chang List Price: $10.63

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)

Black & White on White paper

256 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1453767405

ISBN-10: 1453767401

Please let me know if you would like to receive a copy from me at a lower cost of ten dollars including delivery in the States. I may be able to establish such a delivery system in Seoul, later.

My home partner will leave for the far eastern region next weeks for three weeks with her sisters and brothers, and I decided to visit to the Normans in Vancouver for a week just to avoid staying in an empty nest alone. April is known as aeration month, and greens of our golf course as well as other courses will be punctured in small holes and filled with sands. We, then, have rough greens for a couple of weeks, and this is the month to visit grand children for this community.

 I also wrote another column for our local paper about golf.

“Playing golf might be fun, I suppose, but it doesn’t do enough to give you the physical exercise you need,” sneered a friend of mine who is still an avid tennis player.

I just smiled and replied,” Playing golf offers me a great way to stay active without getting overexerted and it also provides me with incredible benefits—like a longer and healthier life.”

Steven Kim, a surgeon who retired from his practice in Kentucky before moving to the Village, recently told me some of the benefits of playing golf: stronger bones, reduced joint and muscle pain, improved mobility and balance, lower risk of falls and serious injuries (such as hip fractures), reduced loss of muscle mass, and increased intake of Vitamin D from sunlight, which is essential for strong bones and cell growth and strengthens the immune system.

That’s all well and good, of course, but the best part of playing golf for me is the walking. It takes about five hours and about 14,000 steps to play a round of golf on our Laguna Woods course—about 7,000 steps if you ride in a golf cart. I don’t carry my golf bag on my shoulder anymore since my retirement, but I still try to walk as much as I can in order to achieve my daily requirement of 10,000 steps.

To help me keep track of my progress, I was given a gift of a small belt attachment, known as “10,000 step machine,” that provides me with strong incentive to meet my daily minimum. The machine was given to me by the former speaker of the Korean National Assembly (the Korean Congress) who lived a healthy life for eighty-eight years by walking every day.

My dear friend and mentor, the late William H. Taft of the University of Missouri, also walked more than 10,000 steps every day after suffering a minor stroke at the age of sixty, and he maintained his walking as part of his healthy lifestyle program until his death last month—at ninety-five.

Golf is a wonderful game that provides me with great mental benefits as well as physical exercise. The golf course is a wonderful place to relax and spend time with family and friends, enjoying fresh air and beautiful scenery. So do I feel the need to play tennis? Absolutely not!

May is designated as the Family Month by Koreans as we celebrate many important days, such as Children’s Day (May 5), Parents’ Day (May 8), Adoption Day (May 11), Becoming Adults Day (May 16), and Couples’ Day (May 21). My own family has been the center of my “retirement without retiring.” I’m blessed to have been able to live with my wife for 49 years and to work closely with and for her, though I’ve learned that my wife worked for me far more than I did for her during our pre-retirement years. I haven’t started to take a cooking class yet, but I love to cook some exotic dishes to help relieve my wife’s daily chore. I’m also willing to wash dishes, clean the house, and wash clothes.

I grew up in a family with grandparents, parents, four brothers, and three sisters under one roof. It’s nostalgic for me to look back on the old days amid a very big family, while my wife and I are now living in a so-called empty nest. Our children and grandchildren live in three different countries faraway from our home, and we miss them very much. We like to see how our children are doing in their professional careers and to watch grandchildren grow up—it all seems to happen so fast.

I recently heard some complaints from our neighbors, whose adult children brought their own children to stay with Grandma and Grandpa while they went on a skiing trip. However, those same neighbors must secretly enjoy it, since they watch the grandkids again and again.

I watched my grandfather become an absolute dictator, and my own father became the same after his father’s death. In some ways, I played a similar role—though without any real authority—when we moved to the Sates. Our three children were quite young then, but they never hesitated to protest my attempts at tyranny, but my wife always sided with me, something I’ve always been grateful for. Our three children still vividly recall many incidents they didn’t understand then—and some they still don’t understand even now.

Our children were smarter than I was and chose their professional fields over my strong protests. We were delighted to find our first child interested in architecture and were happy when she completed her rigid five-year educational pogrom. However, she wouldn’t listen to my wish for her to find a Korean husband—and now she and her family are doing very well in spite of my protestations.

We though our second child had listened to us—but only one year into his pre-med program, he switched to political science and became a corporate lawyer. He’s now doing just as well with his family in Hong Kong.

Our youngest child chose Yale over my preference for Harvard and chose European literature as his field, even though I had pressed him to study engineering or economics. He is now a professor.

As I look back, I must reluctantly admit that the next generation of my own family seemed to know what they were doing, so I suppose the following generation will also do things that are beyond our imagination—and I wish them all the best.

Those were yesterday... and now...

You wouldn’t believe me if I told you that I may be running for the Third Mutual Board, the governing board of this 6,000-family community. There is another board, United Mutual, for 6,000 co-op units in this retirement village. The Third Mutual Board for condominiums consists of eleven members, and four seats will be replaced in an annual election in early October. I was told three incumbents would be running again.

I was persuaded to run by the leaders of the Korean and Chinese clubs in this village. However, it takes about 1,500 votes, while membership of these two clubs is only about 600, so I’ll need some support from other organizations. I’m known by villagers for my newspaper columns and a television show about my books. I’ve also served as treasurer for the men’s golf club for two years. My academic background and journalism experience has impressed some members of the board and other political leaders of this community. My background and experience should help enhance the not-so-good image of a community beset with lawsuits and accusations of wrongdoing by the management company.

Something else that comes up to my mind...

A binge drinker always claims he’s never had enough, even when he’s taken home by his friends. You’ve probably heard that it costs about 100 big ones if you get caught drunk driving in California.

I belong to a club that always bets for drinks, but I’ve gotten smarter at finding solutions to avoid disaster—it’s mixing ice with Soju. I’ve also found perfect mixes in inexpensive wine and yogurt, and plain water and expensive Scotch whiskey. I never get drunk with these drinks. I have conflicting scientific research that seems to indicate that any alcoholic beverage is bad for your health, yet two glasses of red wine a day is actually beneficial for your heart. I never get enough with two drinks, but I’ve never been caught. So go ahead. Enjoy your lifestyle with Soju, wine, and whiskey—but I’m warning you: don’t get caught!

This article also is posted on the web site of the Medical Alumni Association of Seoul National University: