Dr. Paul Ju Chun Ph.D

Paul Ju Chun, Ph.D., of Sykesville, MD, went to be with the Lord on August 29, 2022. Paul was born on March 21, 1938, in a small rural village in the southern region of the Korean peninsula. In 1938, Korea was still under Japanese occupation and many of Paul’s early childhood memories involve taunting the occupying military officers and other mischievous activities; he sometimes got away and sometimes he got caught with stiff punishment. Even as a young child, Paul excelled at school and understood that education would provide for many more opportunities. Paul was accepted at a prestigious middle school at a nearby city and began to independently live on his own at the age of 13. Paul provided for himself and paid the tuition by tutoring and continued to excel throughout high school. After high school, Paul was accepted to both Seoul National University and the national Korea Military Academy. Paul selected to attend Seoul National University and continued to excel as a Mathematics major. Paul also became a student leader in the 1960 nationwide student protest over unfair political elections. Throughout his life, Paul had vivid memories of those intense and deadly moments confronting police tear gas and barricades at government buildings to push for fair elections. After college, Paul began teaching Math at the Chungshin Girl’s High School. During this time, Paul met his future wife, Helen, who also graduated from Chungshin Girl’s High School. While South Korea began to thrive after the Korean War, Paul and Helen knew that moving to America would provide better life opportunities. Throughout the years, many of Paul’s students also moved to America. In fact, the Washington DC Alumni Association has always welcomed Paul as an honored teacher at the alumni gatherings. Paul moved to America in January 1970 to study Math as a graduate student at the University of Louisville (which also explained his lifetime fandom of Louisville college basketball). After accepting a nursing position at the Louisville Children’s Hospital, Helen moved from Seoul Korea to Louisville in June 1970. Right after Helen’s arrival, they drove to Illinois where Helen’s uncle was a pastor and officiated their wedding. After receiving his Master of Mathematics degree in 1972, Paul realized that computers would transform our society and he changed careers from math to coding computer systems. Paul and Helen moved to Baltimore, and he quickly rose through the ranks of the nascent computing industry. In 1975, Paul received his Doctorate, Ph.D., in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. Paul and Helen had two children, Jeanne and Eugene, and the Chun family moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where Paul was a principal architect for the first generation of ATMs for the Philadelphia National Bank. Paul always made sure to arrange his work so he would attend school concerts, little league baseball games, and all of Jeanne and Eugene’s major school moments. Finally, Paul decided to reach for the American dream and began his own business, ISTC, and the family moved to Maryland. Through his knowledge of government information systems, connections, and unwavering hard work, Paul succeeded in securing multiple long-term computing and database contracts from Medicare, the Railroad Retirement Board, and other federal government agencies. Paul’s leadership helped transform government agencies from legacy operations to modern mainframe data processing. Throughout Paul’s life, he was involved in church ministries from teaching Bible studies, leading Young Adult Ministries, and he deeply enjoyed discussing sermon points with pastors. After retiring, Paul devoted more time to helping start new churches and preaching God’s word with ministries devoted to helping the homeless in Washington DC. Over the years, many people from all social-economic statuses told Paul how he impacted their lives. As much as he worked with companies and church ministries, Paul’s greatest impact came with his family. He devoted his life to provide for Helen and his children. As he got older, Paul’s dedication expanded to his grandchildren, and he loved spending time playing and laughing with Sara, Peter, Nathan, and Danny. In 2012, Paul was diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy which is a degenerative brain disorder that impacted both his physical movements and cognitive ability. Over the past ten years, no matter how much PSP took away his capabilities, Paul’s face showed how much he loved his family right up to his final breath which he used to gently move his mouth in response to his family.

Dr. Paul Ju Chun Ph.D

March 21, 1938 - August 29, 2022