Obituary: Jean Kim Cortés

Jean Kim Cortés, an educator who from 1993-1999 was the La Cañada Unified School District’s coordinator for the English as a Second Language program, died Oct. 5 after a nearly three-year battle with cancer.

Born Sung Jin Kim in Pusan, South Korea on Sept. 14, 1953, Cortés immigrated to Los Angeles with her family when she was 14. After studying graphic arts at UCLA, she became an elementary school teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District. Before coming to La Cañada schools she worked in Koreatown teaching Korean children who were making the transition to a new culture and language, as she had done. After her work in La Cañada Unified she returned to the LAUSD to serve as a first-grade teacher.

Services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 9 in the Christ Risen Chapel of Holy Cross Mortuary, 5835 W. Slauson Ave., Culver City. Friends and family are invited to a local residence following the services: 2417 El Moreno St., La Crescenta.

Survivors include her husband, Alvaro Cortés and sons Anthony and Nicholas; her mother, Bock Cha Kim and father, Yong Jae Kim (Shin Ae); three sisters and a large extended family. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the Jean Kim Cortés Scholarship Foundation. Mail donations to: California Community Foundation, 445 S. Figueroa St., Suite 3400, Los Angeles, CA 90071, Attn: Finance Dept. Online donations can be made at https://www.calfund.org/give/cortesscholarship.php.