[News Figures] Lee Jong-hwan, Samyoung Chemical Chairman and 1.7 Trillion Won 'Donation King,' Passes Away

Lee Jong-hwan (李鍾煥·photo), former chairman of Samyoung Chemical Group, who led the development of the chemical industry and the electric wire industry by establishing the first petrochemical company in Korea in the 1950s, passed away at Seoul National University Hospital at 1:48 a.m. on the 13th. He was 100 years old.

Born in May 1923 (officially 1924) in Uiryeong, Gyeongnam, former Chairman Lee graduated from Masan High School and completed up to his second year in the Department of Commerce at Meiji University in Japan. Later, he was drafted as a student soldier and crossed life-threatening borders between the Soviet Union, Manchuria, and Okinawa until liberation. After liberation, he engaged in rice milling and peddling at Dongdaemun Market before turning to plastic manufacturing. In 1958, he founded Samyoung Chemical Industry with a single injection molding machine, producing and selling plastic bowls, cups, and buckets.

He then shifted focus to packaging film business and, through technological development, challenged the production of advanced synthetic packaging materials such as snack and ramen packaging and transparent packaging films. Samyoung Chemical Industry was also the first to develop transparent wrap for food.

In the 1970s, responding to the rapidly increasing demand for electric wires, he founded Kukje Electric Wire and developed it into one of the top three electric wire companies in Korea, but had to close the business due to competition from rival companies. Instead, he nurtured Korea Insulator Industry, the only domestic insulator manufacturer, into a mid-sized company, revolutionizing the domestic power transmission and distribution system by developing high-voltage lines of 154 kV and ultra-high-voltage lines of 765 kV, and producing ultra-ultra-high-voltage insulators that had been entirely imported, achieving 100% localization. In 2009, nearing his nineties, he ventured into producing large diesel engines for ships, expanding his business into the heavy industry sector. Samyoung Chemical Group currently oversees about 10 companies, including Samyoung Heavy Industries.

The late chairman donated 1.7 trillion KRW to the Kwanjeong Lee Jong-hwan Education Foundation, established in late April 2002 with the goal of "nurturing top talent for the development of humanity in the Republic of Korea." The foundation has grown into Asia's largest scholarship program, awarding a total of 15 billion KRW annually to 1,000 domestic and international scholarship students. Over the past 23 years, the number of scholarship recipients has reached about 12,000, with 750 doctoral degrees awarded. The total scholarship amount disbursed to date is approximately 270 billion KRW. In 2012, he donated 60 billion KRW to build a large-scale electronic library at Seoul National University, marking the largest donation in the university's history.

For these contributions, he received the Mugunghwa Medal, the Order of Civil Merit, in 2009, and in 2021, he was awarded the 22nd April 19 Culture Award. Seoul National University awarded him an honorary doctorate in engineering in 2014 to honor his pioneering and development of the domestic chemical industry. He is survived by his eldest son, Lee Seok-jun, CEO and chairman of Samyoung, along with two other sons and four daughters. The funeral is being held at Seoul National University Hospital Funeral Hall, with the funeral service scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on the 15th.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.