<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">Dear Colleagues, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">I have been asked to pass the following along to this list.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">Dear Members of the Korean Studies
Community,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">I write to inform you that one of the
leading figures in Korean Studies, Professor Kenneth Wells, passed away on 30
March in New Zealand.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">I first met Ken in September 1986, when I began
studying at Indiana University, Bloomington. I had little desire \u201cto go to
college,\u201d as they say in the US, and was set on joining the Air Force, like
some of my older friends. In the end, parental pressure (\u201cyou must go to
college!\u201d) won out over peer influence. In July 1986, my father took me to the induction
process at Indiana University, which included looking at possible courses. I
vividly remember walking through Franklin Hall until I came to the board for
East Asian Studies. One of the options was a level one Korean language class,
and I figured \u201cwhy not?\u201d It seemed at least reasonably appropriate since (1) I
had no idea what to study and (2) by then had spent most of my high school
years doing Hapkido. Little did I know what a pivotal decision that was.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">My very first college course was on a
Monday at 9:00 a.m. at Ballantine Hall. It was also Ken\u2019s first in the US. There
were roughly twenty students, and we were all chatting when this white guy with
a beard walked in and introduced himself. We understood that he was our Korean
language teacher, but otherwise we were mystified at the most elemental thing:
his name. Finally, Ken wrote \u201cWells\u201d on the blackboard, thus making clear to us
that his name was not \u201cWurz.\u201d That was our introduction to the peculiarities of
vowels in New Zealand English, and so we got a bit of New Zealand English
tossed in with Korean. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">The students adapted well, but
pronunciation is one thing and expressions another. Disaster struck in the
lead-up to the Thanksgiving break, after which we were to take a major exam. Ken
ended the class by asking if we had any \u201cburning questions.\u201d There were two
problems here. First, none of us had ever heard the expression before. Second, there
was the vowel problem. The entire class w</span><span lang="EN-AU">ent</span><span lang="EN-AU"> silent, and Ken knew something was wrong but had no idea exactly
what was going on. Finally, an older student raised his hand and asked,
\u201cProfessor, I don\u2019t want to be rude, but why are you talking about <i>burning
Christians</i>?\u201d Over those previous weeks, Ken was serious, but at that moment,
we got to see that he had </span><span lang="EN-AU">a </span><span lang="EN-AU">quirky sense
of humour and that when he laughed, he laughed hard. And so to the blackboard
he went, spelling out \u201cquestions,\u201d as he and all of us </span><span lang="EN-AU">students
</span><span lang="EN-AU">howled with laughter. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">The mix of students was atypical compared
to the average college classroom. There were the eighteen-year-old freshmen
like me, but also older students\u2014usually, but not always male\u2014who had been in
the military and stationed in South Korea. This led to a curious imbalance when
Ken, in something of a tradition during his time at Indiana University, invited
the students to his home for a party featuring Korean food prepared by wife,
Young-Oak. The more worldly among us knew what was what and were delighted. The
rest, like me, were a bit more cautious. I remember my initial scepticism over
kimchi (it did not last long) and wonderment that a people who had created that
</span><span lang="EN-AU">had </span><span lang="EN-AU">also created a delectable
dish called <i>chapch\u2019ae.</i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">A few years later, Ken and his family moved
to the outskirts of town, to a home with a paddock. The annual parties shifted
there. And there,</span><span lang="EN-AU"> too,</span><span lang="EN-AU"> Ken brought a bit of New
Zealand to southern Indiana by acquiring sheep, including a big ram that his kids
appropriately named \u201cLambo.\u201d This venture had its own hilarities. At one point,
Ken and a professor friend drove to Kentucky to pick up a lamb to add to the
flock, bringing it back in the backseat of a beat-up Datsun. Funny enough, but
they also stopped at a bar to get a bite to eat and a beer on the trip and
shocked the Kentucky locals by asking if they had Fosters. I remember hearing
this story and thinking \u201care you crazy?\u201d Since my father was a prosecutor, I
had it drummed into my head since I was a little kid that one of the most
dangerous things you can do is </span><span lang="EN-AU">to </span><span lang="EN-AU">go into a
bar that you don\u2019t know in a place</span><span lang="EN-AU"> that</span><span lang="EN-AU"> you
don\u2019t know. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">In that sense, Ken could be quite innocent,
although one was not always sure where the innocence ended and the quirky sense
of humour began. The sheep farm provided a prime example of this conundrum in
the form of an annoying neighbour (a lawyer, no less, as I recall) and his
unruly German Shepherd that kept harassing Ken\u2019s sheep. A normal American (and
as anyone who knew Ken knows all too well, he was not American, normal or
otherwise) would have shot the dog. Not Ken. Instead, he kidnapped the dog after
catching it lurking about the paddock (apparently, the hound was quite nice
when not harassing the sheep) and took care of it for a considerable period
(carefully informing the owner of the ever-rising food bill). Eventually, a
truce was reached, and a Hatfield-McCoy feud was avoided. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">Several years after receiving tenure at
Indiana, Ken took a job at The Australian National University in 1994. By that
point, his pathbreaking work</span><span lang="EN-AU">,</span><span lang="EN-AU"> <i>New God,
New Nation: Protestants and Self-Reconstruction Nationalism in Korea, 1896-1937</i>
(University of Hawaii Press, 1991)</span><span lang="EN-AU">,</span><span lang="EN-AU"> had been
published and his edited volume, <i>South Korea's Minjung Movement: The Culture
and Politics of Dissidence</i> (University of Hawaii Press, 1995), was in
press. Ken quickly established himself as a leader and advocate for Korean
Studies in Australasia as the founding president of the Korean Studies
Association of Australasia in 1994 as well as the head of the ANU\u2019s Centre for
Korean Studies. I was fortunate to receive a scholarship from the ANU and went
there in 1995 to continue my PhD under Ken\u2019s supervision. I saw much of that
effort on his part up close, and in 2003, Ken received much-deserved
recognition when he was appointed the endowed Korea Foundation Professor of
Korean History</span><span lang="EN-AU"> at the ANU</span><span lang="EN-AU">. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">In 2009, Ken embarked on a new adventure
when he took a position teaching Korean history at Berkeley for three years.
Although most who knew Ken think of his passion for mountaineering (not hiking,
but serious mountain climbing), he also was a bit of a car enthusiast, and I
recall a photo of him next to a bright yellow Ford Mustang that he rented for a
trip down the California Pacific Coast Highway. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">After Ken\u2019s California adventure, he
retired to New Zealand with his wife and set up a hazelnut farm. But he also remained
an active scholar and travelled worldwide to give talks and did not exactly
retire in any conventional sense. He was a Research Fellow at the New Zealand
Asia Institute and an Adjunct Professor of history at the University of
Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he also occasionally taught. Over
this time, he worked on his fine study, <i>Korea: Outline of a Civilisation</i>
(Brill, 2015), as well as another project that he and his wife worked on for
nearly two decades: a biography of her uncle, who ended up in the Soviet Union
after the Korean War, entitled <i>Too Fast</i></span><i><span lang="EN-AU">,</span><span lang="EN-AU"> Too Slow</span></i><span lang="EN-AU"> </span><span lang="EN-AU">(Seoul:</span><span lang="EN-AU"> </span><span lang="EN-AU">SeodoAD [</span><span lang="KO" style="font-family:"Malgun Gothic",sans-serif">\uc11c\ub3c4\ucd9c\ud310\uc0ac</span><span lang="EN-AU">], Feb. 2026)</span><span lang="EN-AU">. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">It is gratifying to know that Ken received
copies of the biography in the final weeks of his life. In one of our last
conversations, he told me that he was reading the book by a fire. \u201cAny typos?\u201d \u201cNope,
they did a good job,\u201d he replied with a chuckle. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">For those who are interested, the family
asks that in lieu of flowers, a charitable donation in Ken's name be made to Hinewai
Nature Reserve; donation details are on their homepage (<a href="https://www.hinewai.org.nz/" style="color:rgb(70,120,134)">https://www.hinewai.org.nz/</a> ). </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">Those who would like to send condolences to
the family may do so at Young-Oak Wells 380 Ashley Gorge Road, RD1 Oxford 7495,
New Zealand.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU">Sincerely,</span><span lang="EN-AU"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:14.4pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color:black">Dr. Gregory N. Evon</span><span lang="EN-AU"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:14.4pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color:black">History and Area
Studies</span><span lang="EN-AU"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:14.4pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color:black">School of Humanities
& Languages</span><span lang="EN-AU"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:14.4pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color:black">ARTS, DESIGN, and
ARCHITECTURE</span><span lang="EN-AU"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:14.4pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color:black">UNSW SYDNEY</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="color:black">, </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="color:black">NSW 2052</span><span lang="EN-AU"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:14.4pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color:black">AUSTRALIA</span><span lang="EN-AU"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color:black">email: <a href="mailto:g.evon@unsw.edu.au" title="mailto:g.evon@unsw.edu.au" style="color:rgb(70,120,134)">g.evon@unsw.edu.au</a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="color:black"> </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="color:rgb(36,36,36)"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-AU"> </span><span lang="EN-AU"></span></p></div><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr"><br></div></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Michael J. Pettid<br>Professor of Premodern Korean Studies<br><div>Binghamton University<br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>