Park Hee Byung

Infobox Korean name
hangul=박희병
hanja=linktext|朴|羲|秉
rr=Bak Hui-byeong
mr=Pak Hŭibyŏng
hangulho=성천
hanjaho=linktext|醒|川
rrho=Seongcheon
mrho=Sŏngch'ŏn

Park Hee Byung (born 1871, Gangwon, Korea; died June 13, 1907, Denver, Colorado) was a Korean nationalist and one of the first Korean immigrants to the U.S. state of Colorado.cite news|url=http://denver.koreadaily.com/Asp/Article.asp?sv=denver&src=metr&cont=202&typ=1&aid=20071015135730200201|work=Korea Daily|date=2007-10-15|accessdate=2007-11-28|last=Nam|first=Gi-tae|title=덴버광역한인회-박희병 지사 묘비 제막식 (Denver metropolitan area Korean association holds grave unveiling ceremony for Bak Hui-byeong)|language=Korean]

Park first came to the United States in 1900 with Yi Gang, fifth son of Emperor Gojong; the two studied together at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. After his graduation, Park established a mining school in his homeland, but soon returned to North America, where he first went to Mexico in August 1905 before coming to Colorado in January 1906. He rose to prominence as a local community leader there along with Yun Byeong-gu and his nephew Bak Yong-man, helping to organise Denver-area Koreans for the Korean independence movement. He hoped to campaign for Korea's freedom at the 1908 Democratic National Convention, but was killed under mysterious circumstances in a suspected assassination in 1907 and buried in an unmarked grave at Denver's Riverside Cemetery, where he lay forgotten for almost a century.cite web|url=http://narasarang.mpva.go.kr/blind/building/out_buld_con.asp?idx=567&name=&place=&build=&content=|publisher=Ministry of Patriots' and Veterans' Affairs, Republic of Korea|title=국외독립운동시설: 박희병 묘소 (Overseas independence activities: grave of Bak Hui-byeong)|accessdate=2007-11-28|last=Gang|first=Man-hui] [cite news|url=http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7171426|title=Korean-Americans honor their roots|first=Tom|last=McGhee|work=Denver Post|date=October 14, 2007|accessdate=2007-11-28] In 2003, South Korean scholars doing research on immigration to the United States, having found records about Park in Korea, began to look through Denver cemetery records in an attempt to find him. After his burial site was identified, the local Korean American association held a ceremony in October 2007, during which they erected a new $3,000 granite headstone with a bilingual epitaph describing Park's life and accomplishments; 50 people attended the ceremony, including South Korean consul general Koo Bon-woo. [cite news|url=http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5721586,00.html|title=Pioneer Korean immigrant to get his due: 100 years after his death, activist gets grave marker|first=Katie|last=Kerwin Mccrimmon|work=Rocky Mountain News|date=October 13, 2007|accessdate=2007-11-28]

References