Ceremony held to unveil sign board inscribing brief career of Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-chull

Ceremony to unveil a sign-board inscribing a brief life story of Lee Byung-chull, founder of Samsung Group, is held at entrance of Hwa Soo Building in Myeongnynu-dong, central Seoul, Tuesday, amid attendance of leading members of Lee's clan association.

A ceremony was held to unveil a sign-board inscribing Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-choll’s brief life story involving when he was born and when he started his business at the entrance of the Hwa Su Building located Myeongnyun-dong, central Seoul, Tuesday (Nov. 13).

The sign board was put on the wall just beside Lee’s statue erected earlier in 1998 at the entrance of the building, donated by Lee for his clan meeting. The inscription is written in four languages of Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese.The iron board , was built by the clan association as a tribute to Lee who helped his clan meeting greatly in one way or another during his lifetime.

Lee Pill-woo, head of the clan association, and other leading members of the association attended the ceremony, held six days earlier of the 25th anniversary of Lee’s death. In a speech, Lee said “Myeongnyun-dong is a unique place blending traditional and modern culture in Seoul and it is significant for us to have a building for family association in this time-honored street thank to Lee and his son Lee Kun-hee, current chairman of Samsung Group. We came to set up this multi-lingual inscription honoring Lee to inspire both Koreans and foreigners.”

He also said “we hope that this monumental inscription will make young people be able to feel Lee’s  spirit of entrepreneurship.

A sign-board is seen posted just beside Lee Buing-chull's bronze statue in front of Hwa Soo Building Tuesday.

The full contents of the hanging board are as follow:

Ho-Am Lee Byung-chull was born to father ‘Lee Chan-woo’ and mother ‘Kwon Jae-rim’ and on February 12, 1910 in Uiryeong, Gyeongsangnam-do. He established Samsung Trading Co. on March 1, 1938, the forerunner to Samsung. And he founded Samsung C&T Corporation, Cheil Sugar, Cheil Wool Textile Co., Dongyang TV, Samsung Scholarship, The JoongAng Ilbo, Samsung Electronics Co., Cheil Worldwide Inc., Samsung Heavy Industries Co., Samsung Construction Co., and Samsung Economic Research Institute. He was the driving force for Korea’s economic development and laid the foundation for Samsung Group which continues to grow as a global corporate brand. He died on November 19th, 1987. He was married to Park Doo-eul and had three sons: Maeng-hee, Chang-hee, Kun-hee(Chairman of Samsung Electronics) and 5 daughters. He left famous sayings:”The brave deserve the bright future” and “One prominent leader changes the world.”

A passersby reads the sign-board inscribing Lee Byung-cull's life story posted beside Lee's statue at the entrance of Hwa Soo Building Tuesday.