After 17 years in Senate, Paull Shin announced an immediate retirement due to his recent diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease. His life story is pretty fascinating in that he first began his life as an orphaned boy in Korea, was adopted by an American Soldier during the Korean War when he was 16 years old. He came to the U.S. not knowing the language or even knowing how to read. However, according to The Herald, a newspaper in Everett, Shin “consumed knowledge like water” and went onto graduate from U.W. with a doctorate. He found his passion with education and became a professor of East Asian studies and later became the first Asian American to ever to be elected into the Washington State Legislation. A very well respected man, he seems to be loved by many of his peers.

Paull Shin