Lillian was born in 1937 in Hawaii, then a territory of the United States. Her father was born and converted to Methodism in Korea. He received his religious education in America, returned to Korea and moved to Hawaii when Syngman Rhee, later president of Korea, took refuge there from the Japanese occupation. There, Rev. Kim built the first Korean Methodist church in Hawaii.

When Lillian was one, the family moved to Reedly, California. Lillian was too young but her siblings all worked in the local canning factory after school. Later, the family moved to LA and Lillian attended USC where she was active in the Independent Women’s Caucus and the Trojan Debate squad. She graduated in 1958.

After SC, Lillian attended Harvard Law School graduating in 1961. After law school, she moved to Washington, working for the Library of Congress and in the international Affairs section of the Office of the General Counsel of the Treasury department.

Lillian was married to William H. Joseph, a Harvard Law School classmate in December 1962 in Washington. They moved to San Francisco in 1965 where Lillian worked on Pat Brown’s gubernatorial re-election campaign [for his third term - he beat Nixon for his second term and lost to Reagan if memory serves]. In 1967, Lillian gave birth to a son, Andrew, who later graduated from Harvard College, magna cum laude with highest honors and is now working towards a Ph.D. in linguistics at Cornell. The family moved to New York City in 1967 where Lillian died in 1969 at the age of 32 after a two-year struggle with cancer.

In 1976 the family created The Lillian Kim Forensics Prize to honor a female member of the squad in Lillian’s memory. The prize was presented at the 1976 awards dinner by Lillian’s husband, son and a sister, Joy. The first recipient was a young lady named Gleam Davis. In turn, the Squad made Mr. Joseph an honorary member. Lillian came from a remarkable family with an enviable record of accomplishment. Each of her siblings receiving a graduate degree – public health, microbiology and music to go with Lillian’s law degree.

Note – The TDS is proud to acknowledge that this biography and the Lilian Kim award are provided by William Joseph and the Joseph and Kim family.