“I hope that my donations will support engineering talents who will lead our country and society.”
A self-made man, near the age of 80, endowed KU with all his wealth.
KU will set up the Lee Moon-chi Scholarship Fund in honor of the noble spirit of the “unsung” donor.

▲ The recipients of the Lee Moon-chi Scholarship took photos at the award ceremony.

A scholarship program will be set up in the name of Moon-chi Lee by KU. The unsung donor has decided to give KU all his wealth in order to foster outstanding engineering talents, who will lead our nation and society in the future.

An elderly man, near the age of 80, sent 100 million won in cash to KU in last March. He had no connection to the school, but he donated the money to support engineering students at KU. Having always wanting to spend his wealth for a good cause, he felt richly rewarded from his first donation. While being consulted about the donation process, he learned about legacy-giving and decided to contribute all his wealth to KU.

Last April, he informed KU of his intention to donate all his wealth, including the apartment units he possesses in Gyeonggi Province and bank savings, in the form of a gift of property or authentication of the will. The value of his wealth that he has made over his lifetime is expected to exceed one billion won.

KU initially planned to hold a donation ceremony in order to express its appreciation, but canceled it as the donor insisted not to do so, stressing, “I want nothing, except my name, to be revealed.” Following the donor’s intention, KU named the program the Lee Moon-chi Scholarship Fund, and held a scholarship award ceremony with the recipient engineering students.

Moon-chi Lee, aged 78, was born in Cheongyang, South Chungcheong Province. “I came to Seoul when I was young, and since then, I have done whatever I could to make a living,” said Lee. He added, “Due to financial problems with my family, I had to drop out of middle school. I hope that students can continue to study as much as they want without worrying about tuition fees and living expenses. I believe that more outstanding talents should be fostered to make our country and society stronger and more prosperous. KU is known to have produced a number of leaders of our society. Recently, I have also watched some good news about KU. I believe that KU will continue to play as an incubator of talents of our nation.”

As Lee expressed his intention to endow KU with all his wealth, including two apartment units and bank savings, the school plans to establish a scholarship fund, the Lee Moon-chi Scholarship Fund, for engineering students. In addition, KU held a scholarship award ceremony to give the 100 million won Lee sent in last March to the recipients.

“I sincerely appreciate the donor giving our school all he possesses with an understanding of KU’s commitment to fostering talents. His act is truly significant as it has taken him a lifetime to build his wealth as a self-made man,” said KU President Jaeho Yeom. He also added, “I pay my respect to the donor, who revealed nothing but his name. I pledge that, in honor of his noble spirit and strong belief in KU, we will unflinchingly continue to nurture outstanding talents.”

Jeong-hyun Choe (Department of Architecture, ’10), selected as one of the first scholarship recipients, said, “It’s so regrettable not expressing my gratitude in person. Following the will of the donor who supports us, I will pursue my dream to translate it into reality as that’s what he wants us to do.”

Ho-jeong Lee (Department of Mechanical Engineering, ‘13) said, “I heard that he donated all his wealth that he has built with hardships. I want to follow his footsteps and grow into a person who helps others in need. My dream is to establish an alternative tech school, which will be an educational platform to make the world a better place with engineering.”

“My only wish is that while I’m living, I want to see the scholarship recipients grow into the pillars of our society and translate their aspirations into actions,” said Moon-chi Lee.