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Friday 8/10/2001	5 day quick link 8/1 \| 7/30 \| 7/27 \| 7/25 \| 7/23

Laura Pelner/ Campus Editor

Members of the Purdue community gather outside the Stewart Center Friday afternoon for a walk to Purdue Village to commemorate the sisters, Yuenkyung and Hyo Kyung Woo, who were killed on Aug. 2.

Community gathers to remember sisters

By Laura Pelner
Campus Editor
Nearly 600 members of the local community filled most of the Loeb Playhouse Friday afternoon to join together in remembrance of graduate student Yeunkyung Woo and her sister, Hyo Kyung Woo, who were murdered Aug. 2 in Yuenkyung's Purdue Village apartment.

Yuenkyung's friends and coworkers, as well as Purdue officials paid tribute to her through speech, music and prayer.

"Her approach to work was professional and her approach to life was like that of a 5-year-old child," said Stanley Rane, adjunct associate professor in the department of biological sciences, which is where Yeunkyung, 31, of South Korea, was a doctoral student.

Yeunkyung worked for Rane as a graduate student and he said she constantly reminded him of the dignity of his profession.

"She restored my faith," he said.

Yeunkyung worked with many faculty members in the biological sciences department. David Asai, head of the department, said those he works with are mourning her death as they would anyone from their own family.

"We are confused, angry, stunned," he said. "Above all, we grieve."

One of Yuenkyung's friends and colleagues, Melony Black, shared some of her fondest memories with those who attended the memorial service.

Black said that for her the best way to describe Yeunkyung was "beautiful, in every possible sense of the word" and she thanked Yuenkyung's husband and parents for sharing her with the Purdue community.

Black pointed out the diversity in the crowd who came to remember the Woo sisters and said it was a tribute to them.

"This is a really diverse group of people - faculty, staff and students from all over the world," she said. "Yeunkyung never let any differences hinder the friendships she had."

Black also knew Hyo Kyung, 29, and said she was "very talented" and "so much fun to be around."

"She wanted to eventually study fine arts at Purdue," Black said.

She added the two sisters had always been close. "I once heard Yeunkyung say 'when we were little we always went everywhere holding hands,'" Black said. "I don't think they did that anymore, but I think in every sense of the word they still are."

Even Purdue provost, Sally Frost Mason, who never met the Woo sisters, offered condolences. "The entire Purdue family shares the anguish and sorrow the family feels," she said.

Laura Pelner/ Campus Editor

REMEMBRANCE: A member of the Purdue community weeps during a memorial outside the apartment of Yuenkyung Woo. A group of mourners gathered outside the apartment to sing songs and remember Woo and her sister, Hyo Kyung.

Frost Mason said the remembrance session, which she organized, was being videotaped so it could be sent to the Woo family. She said the University is also working on a memorial fund so Yeunkyung can be remembered in the future.

In addition to the Office of the Provost, the memorial service was sponsored by the Purdue Korean Association, the department of biological sciences, the Office of International Students and Scholars, the Office of the Dean of Students, the Purdue Village and the Korean Presbyterian Church of Purdue.

Rev. Richard Kim of the Presbyterian Church led a prayer for the sisters and other members of the church played the piano and sang in Korean and English.

Another friend and colleague of Yeunkyung also spoke about her in Korean.

Following the service people were invited to walk from Loeb Playhouse to Lilly Hall and then Yuenkyung's apartment to pay further tribute. Outside her apartment Korean members of the crowd joined in singing another song for the sisters.

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