Lasting Memories

Imsong Lee
Sept. 9, 1931-Dec. 31, 2024
Redwood City, USA

Imsong Lee, age 93, passed away peacefully on Tuesday December 31, 2024 in Redwood City, California surrounded by family. He was born in a small town called Hunchun near the border of China, Russia and Korea, in August of 1931. Growing up, he lived a relatively normal life until his early teens which was significantly disrupted by the Japanese Colonial Occupation, Chinese Civil War, WWII and the Korean War. In 1945 shortly after Japan had surrendered, his father was killed which changed the outlook for the entire family. He was 14 years old. Soon he traveled south down to Seoul, Korea with his maternal uncle, where some relatives settled. His journey to Seoul was illegal at the time and had to be done in the cover of night. After studying for school exams, he attended Joong Ang High School and graduated in Spring of 1949, and then he attended Seoul National University (SNU) majoring in physics. When he was a sophomore in June 1950, the Korean War broke out that changed his student life. He joined the Korean Army in October 1950 and served as a liaison officer between the U.S. and Korean Army while acting as an Interpreter, learning to speak English on the job. He was awarded a Bronze Star Medal from the US Army for this work.

After the war, Imsong came to the United States on scholarship to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York. An American army officer sent a radio message to RPI by MAR Network (MilitaryAffiliated Radio Network) to help secure the tuition scholarship awarded the previous year. Imsong married Hyun Choong Kim in April, 1958 in New York City, and later had four children: Donna, Betty (Elizabeth), Peggy and David. In New York he attended Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and earned a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering.

Imsong Lee proceeded to obtain his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. His doctoral thesis was on the Study of Linear Feedback Systems with Periodic Parameters through an Extension of the Floquet Theory. He was the first Korean employee at HP, where he worked as a doctorate student under HP's Honors Corporation Program from 1959 to 1962. After he finished his Ph.D. program, he worked in the electronics, computer and semiconductor fields.

Imsong Lee worked at GE Research Lab (1962-1964) then taught at his alma mater RPI (1964 - 1969). A one-year sabbatical was spent at IBM research in Yorktown Heights New York. Imsong taught as a professor at UMass Amherst (1969-1972). In 1972 he packed up his family and drove across country in a Ford Country Squire station wagon and pop-up tent trailer for a teaching engagement at UC Berkeley from 1970 to 1978. Imsong also created a startup, Digital Electronics, in 1974. The company was to commercialize his invention named "DE69", a kind of a primitive personal computer based on Motorola's early microprocessor "6900".

Imsong Lee led Tristar Semiconductor (later Samsung Semiconductor) as its first president, then-R&D company of Samsung Electronics, located in Silicon Valley in 1983. During the formation process he met Samsung developed and successfully manufactured the first 64K DRAM in 1985 in Korea He consulted for many years for with Sharp Corporation in Japan, and spoke fluent Japanese. While Imsong had a great belief and career in technology, he repeatedly said the most delicate and intricate reasoning machine is the human brain. After retirement from industry, Imsong became involved in the Korean American Community Center, a small local church, local Zen Buddhist community and wrote poetry. He published a book of his poetry, with each poem being written in both English and Korean. He and Hyun Choong enjoyed travels to Europe, Japan, Korea and Australia among other countries during this time. He also enjoyed traveling to the Big Island of Hawaii and would meet his brother from Korea there annually. Imsong was fortunate to have several friend groups including a book club and a luncheon group, and even a tea tasting group. His luncheon group met at Chef Chu’s in Los Altos for many years. He resided in Atherton, CA from 1978-2017, and in Los Altos, CA from 2017 to 2024. He was preceded in death by his wife Hyun Choong in 2016, and his daughter Margaret Weimar in 2020. Imsong is survived by his daughters Donna Lee (Mark), Elizabeth Kim (Robert), son David, and six grandchildren, who miss him dearly and take inspiration from him.