The Weatherhead East Asian Institute mourns the passing of colleague and affiliate Samuel S. Kim, a distinguished scholar of international relations in East Asia who died at his home in Long Branch, New Jersey on October 17, 2026. Professor Kim joined the Institute as a Senior Research Associate in 1993; Weatherhead’s 1993–94 annual report notes that he taught two new courses that year, Korean Politics and Korean Foreign Relations. By the time he retired in 2006, he had attained the title of Senior Research Scholar and his portfolio had grown to include Chinese foreign policy as well.
Professor Kim was considered the first scholar to pay serious attention to China’s role in the United Nations with his 1979 book China, the United Nations, and World Order (Princeton University Press). He wrote or edited 23 books and more than 200 articles on subjects ranging from Chinese and Korean politics and foreign relations to international law and peace studies. He continued his scholarly productivity throughout retirement.
Professor Kim’s distinguished career is all the more noteworthy when his hardscrabble origins are taken into account. As the obituary prepared by his wife Helen Wheaton Benham Kim and daughter Sonya Wheaton Guardo relates:
Born in 1935 into humble beginnings in Hamhung, in northern Korea, Dr. Kim emigrated to South Korea in 1950 at the beginning of the Korean War. As his father passed away when he was an infant, Dr. Kim worked to help support his mother while homeschooling himself for high school, including miraculously teaching himself English by reading the dictionary. In 1958, he was accepted as a junior by Rhodes College (previously Southwestern University). With only $100 to his name, he convinced the president of a cargo shipping company to provide him with free passage to the US so that he could attend Rhodes.
Professor Kim received his BA (with Honors in International Studies) from Rhodes College in 1960. He was a loyal Columbian, having received his Master of International Relations at the university in 1962 and a PhD in Political Science in 1966.
In the words of Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science Andrew J. Nathan, “He followed his mentors in combining detailed local knowledge with the sophisticated application of international relations theory.”
“Sam was a generous collaborator,” Professor Nathan added, “always ready to answer a colleague’s questions or advise a student.”
The Weatherhead East Asian Institute strives to continue the study of East Asian international relations in the spirit of excellence that Samuel Kim exemplified.
In lieu of flowers, Professor Kim’s family has requested that donations be made to UNICEF, P.O. Box 96964, Washington, D.C. 20077-7399. As they wrote in their obituary, “Professor Kim believed strongly in the capacity of the United Nations to bring people of all cultures together and to resolve global conflict.”
