Prof mourned

Killing is ‘horrifying’ to his colleagues

YOUNG KUN KIM, Lehman College’s oldest professor, lived a life dedicated to instilling in students the value of public service and promoting international peace.

In a tragic twist of fate, the 87-year-old political science professor died from injuries sustained in a spasm of savage violence, breaking the hearts of the faculty members and former students who long admired him.

“It’s just horrifying because he was such a sweet man,” said Alan Koenig, who served on the CUNY Graduate Council with Kim. “Very kind, quaint, courtly. It’s such a sad end to a real life of service.”

Kim died Thursday after he was brutally beaten in a mugging at an Upper West Side ATM two days earlier.

Suspect Matthew Lee, 50, was arraigned on murder charges for the brutal Tuesday attack in the lobby of a Citibank on Broadway near W. 96th St.

Lee blamed “bad spirits” for leading him to target Kim.

The assault ended the life of a man who spent half a century teaching Lehman students the finer points of eastern and western philosophy and political thought.

Kim started working at Lehman in 1967 when it was still Hunter College’s Bronx campus. He officially retired on Jan. 23, 2018.

Elhum Haghighat, the chair of the school’s political science department, described Kim as “the most gentle soul that you would ever meet.”

“He lived his life promoting the principles of peace and harmony,” added Haghighat.

“It was a very productive, beautiful life. It’s just sad and ironic that beautiful life ended the way it did with violence.”

News of Kim’s death also shocked and saddened workers at a T-Mobile store on Broadway near W. 96th St.

Kim dropped by every few days asking the workers to check his cell phone and tablet — what he referred to as his “machines,” said employee Matthew Caraballo.