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| Ahn Cheol-soo, left, then presidential candidate of the People's Party, talks with his father Ahn Young-moo, who passed away Tuesday, at his father's home in Busan's Suyeong's District, in this April 2017 file photo provided by Ahn Cheol-soo's election camp. |
By Jung Da-min
Ahn Cheol-soo, chairman of the presidential transition committee, is mourning the death of his father, Ahn Young-mo, 92, a doctor well-known for his lifelong dedication to community service. The younger Ahn has been participating in his father's funeral from Wednesday in Busan.
The late Ahn was a mentor to his son. After graduating from Seoul National University College of Medicine in 1963, he opened a hospital in a shanty town in Beomcheon-dong in Busan's Busanjin District. He ran the hospital for 49 years until 2012.
When treating villagers, he often charged little or nothing. His long-time community service has earned him several nicknames. "Schweitzer of Busan" is one of them.
As the first born of two sons and one daughter, the younger Ahn has said that his father was responsible for forging his values, such as serving people around him and putting honor before wealth.
Like the saying "Like father, like son," the younger Ahn also graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine. Working as a doctor, he also developed several information security programs. After seven years of working two jobs as a doctor during the day and an information security developer at night, Ahn decided to focus more on the IT business.
In 1995, he founded AhnLab, the country's first and biggest anti-virus software company. Holding numerous leadership positions in the domestic software industry, he taught at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) from 2008 to 2011 and Seoul National University Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology from 2011 to 2012.
After entering politics upon declaring his presidential bid in September 2012, Ahn served two terms as a lawmaker at the National Assembly from 2012 to 2020. But he failed three times in his presidential bids, including this year's March 9 presidential election, in which he withdrew his candidacy as the minor opposition conservative People's Party's candidate to support Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative main opposition People Power Party (PPP).
His decision in November 2011 to return half of his AhnLab shares to society, which was implemented over the following years, also resembles his late father's spirit of sharing.
The younger Ahn has often talked about his father's influence in his life in media interviews, including his decision to go to medical school as his father wished.
Upon hearing that his father was in critical condition, Ahn headed for Busan, Monday, right after attending a signing ceremony for the unification of his People's Party and President-elect Yoon's PPP, which came about a month and a half after unifying their candidacy for the presidential election.
