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Elinora Bohyun Park
Elinora Bohyun Park was five years-old when she and her family had to vacate their home in what is now North Korea and flee, partially on foot, to the south of Korea to escape the horrors of the Korean War. The family fled to safety in Taegu, but during that time, lost many relatives and friends by death and kidnapping. The Korean War further devastated families and property, and decimated the dreams of entire generations of Koreans. Amid such tragedy, Elinora, fiercely independent, sought to find her own way in the world, and chose nursing, a most practical field. She decided that war-torn Korea, politically and economically unstable, was insufficient for the opportunities she sought. She decided to pursue further nursing studies in the U.S., and in 1963, stepped off the plane in Chicago, alone, and with minimal support.
Elinora came from an educated family, but in her parents’ generation, Korean women were not permitted to be educated. Elinora’s mother was only able to learn her reading and writing by hiding behind a bookshelf in a classroom full of boys. Despite this generational prejudice, Elinora and her five siblings all attended college. Elinora, always on scholarship, never sought family financial support.
Later on, in Cincinnati OH, Elinora met and married her husband, Moon Su, also a Korean student pursuing a graduate degree in chemical engineering. Both Elinora and Moon Su had pursued graduate degrees and believed strongly in the value of higher education for their two daughters. Moon and Elinora started a chemical manufacturing company, with the support of Elinora’s nursing practice, near Cincinnati and ran it together for more than 20 years.
After Moon Su’s untimely passing from kidney disease in 1989, Elinora fulfilled their long dreamed-for desire to fund a scholarship program. Today, Elinora’s endowment funds a study abroad program for college students at Miami University of Ohio to travel and learn about Korean global business practices and Asian culture.
However, Elinora had another wish, which was specifically to help older women who were non-traditional students to get their college degrees and chart the course of their lives with the help of higher education. Now, Elinora and the Jeannette Rankin Foundation are happy partners in their common pursuit to help and empower women.