Helen Kim

Helen Kim, also known by her Korean name Kim Hwal-lan (1899–1970), was a Korean Methodist educator, writer, ecumenical leader, and university president. She graduated from Ewha College in 1918, pursued further study in the United States, and in 1931 became the first Korean woman to earn a doctorate, receiving her Ph.D. from Columbia University. She later served as dean of Ewha and, from 1939 to 1961, as its first Korean president, guiding the institution through the final years of Japanese colonial rule, the Second World War, liberation, and the Korean War.

Kim helped establish the Korean YWCA, participated widely in international Methodist and ecumenical organizations, and promoted women's education as a Christian vocation. During the Korean War era she also served in public-information work and helped found The Korea Times. After retiring from Ewha, she devoted increasing attention to evangelism and Christian public service.

Her legacy is historically complex. Kim is honored for pioneering women's education and Methodist leadership, but her cooperation with Japanese colonial authorities during the wartime period has drawn sustained criticism and scholarly debate in Korea. Hymnological sources also credit her with Korean Christian texts, including the 1921 song later known in English as Lonely the Boat.