Mourning the Passing of Professor Dongwoon Park

In Memory of Professor Dongwoon Park

On this morning, with the weather suddenly turning chilly, and at a time when the free market economy and liberal democracy are under more serious threat than ever, we received truly heartbreaking news. At the sudden news of Professor Dongwoon Park’s passing, his students and junior scholars were so overwhelmed with grief that their hands and feet trembled.

Professor Park’s resonant voice still rings vividly in our ears as he spent his entire life in academia teaching the true principles of sound economics and nurturing younger generations, and even after retirement unwaveringly emphasizing that the free market economy was the path to South Korea’s prosperity. How could there be anything more devastating than knowing we can no longer hear those conviction-filled teachings?

Professor Dongwoon Park often said that he was drawn to the free market economy after reading Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose. After completing his Ph.D. in economics in the United States and returning to Korea, he taught younger generations at Chonnam National University, Dankook University, and elsewhere, even establishing “market economy” courses at universities for the advancement of the free market economy.

Even after retirement, he continued to devote himself to the cause of the free market economy. In particular, he was deeply concerned about the current situation in South Korea, where attempts are being made to shackle the free market economy, and he dedicated himself to ensuring that South Korea would not take the wrong path by drawing on examples from countries around the world.

In this process, he published around 30 books. Among them, Thatcherism: The Great Victory of the Free Market Economy (2004, FKI Media), which tells the story of how Prime Minister Thatcher revived Britain, and Labor Market Reform Like Schröder, Like Thatcher (2017, Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI)), which deals with Chancellor Schröder’s Hartz labor reforms of Germany’s Social Democratic Party and Thatcher’s worker-centered labor reforms, are indispensable and precious guides for South Korea to return to the path of prosperity.

Among his many scholarly achievements, his research on the labor market stands out most prominently. He always stressed the importance of labor market flexibility. Labor Market Flexibility (1997, Center for Free Enterprise), also the first volume in the Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)’s “Freedom and Reform” series, is a masterwork containing the full breadth of his academic accomplishments on the labor market.

He also made efforts to introduce the free market economy to the broader public. Korea in Crisis: The Market Economy Is the Breakthrough (2005, Monthly Chosun), written so that anyone could easily understand the importance of the free market economy, and A Journey Through the Market Economy with the Bible (2009, FKI Media), which discovers the market economy within Christianity, are works that show his passion for rooting the free market economy in our society.

Even while battling illness, he never stopped his research. In 2019, Professor Park submitted the paper “An Evaluation of the Price Policies of Successive Administrations: From the Kim Dae-jung Administration to the Moon Jae-in Administration” to Freedom and Market, the journal of the Korea Hayek Society. His devotion to continuing his scholarly work to defend the free market economy even during his illness will remain an example to us all.

Although Professor Park has now left his unfinished tasks to his students and junior scholars and departed on a distant journey from which he can never return, his spirit remains as an echo in his books and in the hearts of those who followed after him.

We, too, will strive all the harder in his footsteps and make greater efforts so that the Korean people may stand firmly on the principles of economic science and freedom.

We pray that he may leave to his students and junior scholars the work he had planned in this world but was unable to complete, and rest peacefully in eternal sleep.

We also extend our deepest condolences to his bereaved family, including his wife, Professor Aesil Kim.

November 27, 2020

Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

Korea Hayek Society

Citizens’ Coalition for a Better Society

※ In accordance with the wishes of the bereaved family and the deceased, visits to the funeral altar and condolence money are respectfully declined. We are providing links to an online guestbook and condolence book, and ask that you leave warm words of comfort for the family.

Online Guestbook:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeTIMe8uHA9agP2gltq10E_5lMQwzrLYRCO718lZ0tDmg8NHQ/viewform

Condolence Book:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sJRAiFqmztXThQETTU2yLdl4FAr89yUy/view

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Original title: 故 박동운 교수님의 소천을 애도합니다

Author: Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

Date: 2020-11-27

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=notice&pn=20&idx=23267