Yonsei creates James Laney professorship

Yonsei University has created an eponymous chair professorship in honor of former U.S. Ambassador to Korea James T. Laney for contributing to the Korea-U.S. friendship.

The 86-year-old served as U.S. ambassador to Korea from 1993 to 1997 after serving as president of Emory University. As the top U.S. envoy in Korea, he played an important role in resolving the first North Korean nuclear crisis.

He served in the U.S. Army in the late 1940s in Korea, working in military intelligence. In the late 1950s, he returned to Korea and taught at Yonsei while serving as a Methodist missionary.

Beginning this fall semester, Yonsei plans to recruit Korean and foreign distinguished figures, career diplomats, professors and others as chair professors.

The tenure is one year for chair professors, who will be able to hold open lectures or seminars on one or two subjects.

Yonsei hosted a reception on Monday to celebrate the creation of the James Laney chair professorship at the official residence of the school’s president Jeong Kap-young on Monday. Yonsei officials, former U.S. Ambassador Donald Gregg and current U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim attended the event, but Laney missed it for health reasons.

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)