CORRECTION APPENDED

A former Currier House business tutor, Christopher C. Kim ’99, died suddenly on February 11, at the age of 32. Kim was a passionate advocate for education, which eventually led him to the administration of a five-year-old Washington, D.C. public charter school. [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

Kim chose to focus his career as well as his undergraduate experience on public service and education. At the College—where he participated in the Undergraduate Teacher Education Program—Kim declared a special concentration in education policy.

After graduation, he taught history for three years at Newton South High School in Mass., but returned to Harvard soon after to work as a special assistant to then University President Lawrence H. Summers and to coordinate the Undergraduate Teaching Program.

Though Kim, a 2007 graduate of Harvard Business School, was remembered by Currier tutors and students for being an “extremely helpful and accessible” resource—editing students’ personal statements and resumes during recruiting season—he only worked briefly at a consulting firm, Bain & Company, in Boston.

Last year, Kim moved to Washington, D.C., where he served as the Director of Planning, Policy, and Finance at the E.L. Haynes Public Charter School. He and the school’s founder, Jennifer C. Niles, met when she taught at Phillips Academy, where Kim attended high school. The two felt such a strong professional affinity that Niles held a position open for him when she opened the charter school, said Emmeline K. Owyang ’93, one of Kim’s sisters.

“To me, it seemed like a really good fit for all the things that were important to Chris, including service and mentorship,” Owyang said. “He really enjoyed connecting with students and other faculty members.”

Calling Kim “one of the brightest, most capable people I’ve ever met,” Niles said that he was a dream colleague whom she had tried to hire for years, both before and after his time at the Business School.

“He had all the choices in the world about who he wanted to work for, what he wanted to do,” she said.

An annual Chris Kim Day of Service will be established at the school in Kim’s memory.

Scott C. Seider ’98, one of Kim’s fellow tutors in Currier who also knew him as an undergraduate, said he sensed Kim’s talent for hands-on education when they met periodically after leaving the House to discuss their respective teaching experiences.

Seider, now an assistant professor at Boston University’s School of Education, recalled his youthful looks as well as his warm personality.

“He was this great combination of an incredibly sweet guy with also this very wry sense of humor,” Seider said. “He was both very funny and also very sincere.”

Currier House Masters Richard W. Wrangham and Elizabeth Ross and Resident Dean Katherine Stanton could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Kim is survived by his parents, two sisters, a brother, a brother-in-law, and two nephews.

A memorial service will be held at Phillips Academy on February 28.

—Staff writer Athena Y. Jiang can be reached at ajiang@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Ahmed N. Mabruk can be reached at amabruk@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION

The Feb. 25 news article "Former Tutor Dies Suddenly" incorrectly stated that Christopher C. Kim graduated from Harvard College in 1999. In fact, Kim graduated in 1998.