Samuel S. Kim, passed away peacefully in his home in Long Branch, NJ, on October 17, 2026, at the age of 91. Beloved husband of Helen Wheaton Benham Kim for 61 years, cherished father of Sonya Wheaton Guardo, and dear grandfather of Oscar Wheaton Guardo and Sofia Isabel Guardo.

Born in 1935 into humble beginnings in Hamhung, North Korea, Dr. Kim emigrated to South Korea in 1950 at the beginning of the Korean War. As his father passed away when he was an infant, Dr. Kim worked to help support his mother while homeschooling himself for high school, including miraculously teaching himself English by reading the dictionary. In 1958, he was accepted as a junior by Rhodes College (previously Southwestern University). With only $100 to his name, he convinced the president of a cargo shipping company to provide him with free passage to the US so that he could attend Rhodes. This great fortune launched his distinguished academic career, throughout which Dr. Kim passionately researched and wrote about the continued and ever-changing challenges of international relations and world order, particularly in East Asia.

Dr. Kim was a professor at Monmouth University (1966–1984); Foreign Affairs Institute, Beijing, China (1985-1986); Princeton University (1986-1993); and Columbia University (1993-2006), and also served as editor-in-chief of the Asia in World Politics series of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. He was the author/editor of 23 books on East Asian international relations, Chinese and Korean foreign relations, and world order studies, including China, the United Nations, and World Order (Princeton University Press, 1979), The Quest for a Just World Order (Westview Press, 1984), The Two Koreas and the Great Powers (Cambridge University Press, 2006), North Korean Foreign Relations in the Post-Cold War World (Strategic Studies Institute, 2007), China and the World (editor, Westview Press, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1998), and Korea’s Democratization (editor, Cambridge University Press, 2003). He has also published more than 200 articles in edited volumes of leading international relations journals, including American Journal of International Law, The China Quarterly, Asian Survey, International Interactions, International Organization, International Journal, Journal of Peace Research, World Politics, and World Policy Journal.

Dr. Kim received his B.A. (with Honors in International Studies) from Rhodes College in 1960 and his M.I.A. (1962) and Ph.D. (1966) in political science from Columbia University.