Born in New York City, Alex spent his early years in California and
Oregon. While growing up in Davis and San Luis Obispo, California,
Alex displayed his qualities as a free spirit, gifted flutist, and
mechanical genius. He could be found skateboarding with a friend or
racing a newly-built radio control car down the secluded street. Or
you could hear the tones of his flute wafting through the night air
across the low-lying darkened hills of San Luis. Given a choice of
studying the flute or trumpet in seventh grade, Alex reluctantly
chose the flute on the advice of his mother who promised him he
could learn the trumpet next!
After moving to Portland
Oregon during his middle school years, Alex began attending
Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan during the summers. While only
in eighth grade, Alex journeyed alone to Interlochen from Oregon,
departing cheerfully to embrace a new experience that would change
his life. He attended Interlochen every summer until high school
graduation and later served as a counselor there. Due to the many
geographic moves he made as a result of his mother, Dr. Edna
Chun’s career, Alex considered Interlochen his spiritual
home, the place that bound together all his experiences and where
he made enduring friends.
Alex adapted quickly to
geographic changes and at one point told his parents that he was
glad he had the opportunity to live in different regions of the
country including California, Oregon, Ohio, New York, and Florida.
He made friends quickly and these relationships were highly
meaningful to Alex. As an only child, Alex’s great love was
for Sheila, a German shepherd huskie mix, who he adopted in a
grocery store parking lot in San Luis Obispo when he was in the
fifth grade. The bond between Alex and Sheila was profound. Sheila
loved to hear Alex play the flute and would lie down under his
flute stand while he practiced. As Alex’s inseparable and
loyal companion, Sheila would join him to paddle enthusiastically
at the beach or explore the local parks, always racing to return to
him joyously.. Above all, Alex loved animals, and expressed concern
for vanishing species, mistreatment of wild animals, and
environmental harm resulting from climate change such as the loss
of the ice cap for polar bears.
While in New York City as a
junior in high school at the Friends Seminary in Manhattan, Alex
soloed with the Goliard Ensemble, a professional opera company,
performing as the Magic Flute in Mozart’s opera by the same
name and playing a solo recital. Listening to Alex perform a
movement of the Bach solo partita during a gathered meeting for
Friends Seminaryas his flute tones reached the high vaulted ceiling
was an unforgettable experience. As a high school senior at the
Allendale Columbia School in Rochester, New York, Alex played with
the Eastman School of Music High School Jazz Band and often had
improvisatory solos with that group. A confident performer, Alex
could move an audience to tears with the unparalleled warm and
soaring tones of his flute taking his listeners into another
sphere.
After an invited visit to Oberlin College one
weekend, Alex determined that Oberlin was where he wished to
attend. Turning down a full four-year scholarship in flute
performance at another institution as well as other offers, he was
one of the early majors in Oberlin’s newly established
Neuroscience program. Always an independent thinker, Alex was
engaged by this innovative program that drew on his integrative
critical thinking skills and scientific imagination. Alex often
scoffed at pseudoscientific writings about brain function,
insisting on rigorous analysis and research-based inquiry. While at
Oberlin, Alex worked on the Living Machine project housed in the
Center for Environmental Studies, anexperience that solidified
Alex’s passionate commitment to the environment and
recycling. The Living Machine treats wastewater through a process
of engineering ecology that involves microbes. He solicited
“clients” for the Living Machine and worked actively in
sharing knowledge regardingits system. Alex’s multifaceted
experiences at Oberlinalso included living and working in Keep
Co-Op and serving in various capacities such as food ordering and
management for a vegan dietary plan.
After graduating from
Oberlin in 2008, Alex trained in the Physician Assistant program at
Miami Dade College, a highly selective and intensive two-year
course of study. He was elected President of his class and received
the Distinguished Science Award and the Director’s Leadership
Award. He subsequently worked in the orthopedic practice of Dr.
Nile Lestrange until he was hired by the Surgery Department of Mt.
Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida where he had completed
a clinical rotation previously.
While working full-time at
Mt. Sinai and commuting daily from Ft. Lauderdale, Alex finished
his Master’s degree at St. Francis University. In fulfillment
of his degree requirements, he designed a website, demodocus.xyz,
focused on creating a South Florida online community for the blind,
their employers, advocates and friends. Since Alex’s father,
Dr. Jay K. Chun, is blind, Alex was conscious from an early age of
the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities.
Alex’s multiple talents ranged from building computers and
miniature cars to designing artistic websites. He could be found on
a weekend helping a friend install a new sound system in his car or
working on repairs on his second-hand motor boat. His mechanical
skills were unparalleled and he could serve as electrician or
plumber, replacing wiring, sinks, and lighting. As you will also
see from excerpts on this website, Alex was a fine and perceptive
writer who drew on insights from literature, the arts, and
sciences.In addition, he was a gifted and determined athlete who
challenged himself continuously. Alex was on the Oberlin College
Track Team, advanced through the ranks of Taekwando, was an avid
Yoga practitioner, competed in marathons and triethlons in South
Florida, and participated in competitive motorcycle track days.
Despite his success in the scientific and medical arenas, Alex
often said that the thing he did best was to play the flute. On
this website, you will find clips of Alex playing on days off from
his job, whether at a holiday gathering with friends one year in
North Carolina or at open mikes with hospital colleagues in South
Florida. Still dressed in hospital scrubs after work, he can be
seen improvising with passionate conviction.
Following the
tragic motorcycle accident on November 7, 2015 when a driver cut
across three lanes of ongoing traffic, the Surgery Department at
Mt. Sinai Medical Center led by Dr. Tom Mesko, Director of
Residency Programs, created the Alexander D. Chun Compassion Award.
The award is designed to recognize surgical residents who displayed
the compassion that Alex epitomized in his patient interactions.
The first award was given on June 18, 2016 to Dr. JusharBarot. In
addition, the Alexander D. Chun memorial scholarship in
neuroscience has been established at Oberlin College, with
preference given to a minority student majoring in neuroscience.
A two-hour service celebrating Alex’s contributions was held
on November 15, 2015 and attended by over 250 people, with many
tributes to Alex’s spontaneous generosity, acts of compassion
and kindness, and extraordinary loving spirit. In spite of this
tragic occasion, friends rose to share stories, songs, music, and
testimonies that spoke to Alex’s great sense of humor,
willingness to unselfishly share his second-hand cars and small
house with friends, travel hundreds of miles to assist his close
friend with medical school interviews, and work without
remuneration on behalf of patients that needed assistance. One
friend commented that Alex had a transformative power in bringing
people together and affecting them positively. Many friends
described in deeply moving testimonies how Alex had changed their
life’s perspective, drawn attention to the meaning of life,
and affected the ways they interacted with others. Hundreds of
Facebook posts poured in, documenting the immense sense of loss
felt by friends, colleagues, and family. Even months later, on the
occasion of his birthday on April 5, 2016, friends continued to
write and send emails regarding their profound sense of sadness.
Subsequently, several follow upgatherings were organized by
friends.
On August 21, 2016, a special memorial concert was
held in Alex’s honor in the chapel at Interlochen Arts
Academy. Former Interlochen friends and teachers flew from around
the nation to share remembrances, perform music and read poetry in
his honor. This memorial celebration will be held annually.