Service Above Self For Forty Years

On Friday, July 26, the Park Ridge Rotary Club was honored to welcome Mr. Y. S. Yoo as their guest speaker.

After a successful business career, Mr. Yoo served for many years at the highest levels of the U. S. government, most recently as special advisor to the President of Cote D’Ivoire between 2003-11. In 1991-2 he was Special Envoy of President George H.W. Bush to North Korean leader Kim Il Sung.

Mr. Yoo is also a long-time Rotarian who, in 1999, was awarded RI’s Service Above Self Award for his work on behalf of the Gift of Life Foundation. After hearing his talk, it was not hard to understand the reasons for which he was given this prestigious award.

A successful businessman, Mr. Yoo became a Rotarian in 1973. Named to the NJ Economic Master Plan Committee in 1994, he chaired the International Trade Sub-Committee of that group and brought multiple businesses and thousands of jobs to New Jersey.  Throughout his career he has put that business acumen to work in building up thriving Gift of Life programs in Korea and in several nations in Africa. Overall his determination to make the world a better place by engaging leaders at the highest levels of government and business has served as a great inspiration to all.