Kevin Yoo
Kevin Yoo, whose Korean name is Yoo Kun-bae, was born in a small rural village in South Chungcheong Province, Korea, in 1949. Growing up poor, he tells us that his dream was to escape poverty and live a simple life; in the first grade, he moved from the countryside to Daejeon to begin his primary schooling.
He would hold education close to his heart long after completing school, working as a schoolteacher in Korea for five years before moving to the United States, where he continued attending school while working a variety of jobs until he was twenty-seven years old.
Like many Korean immigrant entrepreneurs of his generation, Kevin’s ventures into small business were wide and varied: he worked at a wig shop, a grocery store, a health food store, and a restaurant before pivoting into his current work in real estate, in which he now has 40 years of experience. He lived in San Francisco for twenty of those years before being urged by his friend and business partner Alex Hahn to come to Oakland, where a small Koreatown was beginning to plant its roots. He marvels at how dynamic Oakland is, as well as how diverse its people are, and finds joy in the fact that the Korean community has gotten along well with their neighbors.
Having seen the growth of the Korean community throughout the East Bay, Kevin hopes that his descendants will continue their family business, continuing to build and support their community across Oakland, Alameda, Concord, and beyond.
In collaboration with Koreatown Youth + Community Center of Los Angeles, Koreatown Storytelling Program is an intergenerational, multilingual and multiethnic oral history and digital media program that teaches ethnographic and storytelling techniques to high school students and elders to investigate cultural practices and racial, economic and health inequities in our community.
Special thanks to Korean Community Center of the East Bay for hosting this Legacy Project recording. Funding made possible by Korean American Community Foundation of San Francisco.