79-Year-Old Pharmacist Sooja Lee Ko Passes Away in Hockessin

Sooja Lee Ko, 79, of Hockessin, Delaware, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at her home, Chandler Funeral Home reported. Her life spanned two countries and more than five decades of service as a pharmacist, a path that began in Seoul and carried her across the Pacific in 1977.

The arc of her career reads like a map of her own journey. She attended Kyunggi Girls High School in Seoul before enrolling at Seoul National University, graduating in 1972. That same year she began working at Seoul National University Hospital, and from 1973 to 1977 she owned Joong-ang Pharmacy in the city. She immigrated to the United States in 1977, the year she married her husband, Soo Sung Ko, and in 1984 she earned a degree in pharmacy from Temple University in Philadelphia. She then joined St. Francis Hospital, where she worked from 1984 to 2009, a 25-year stretch that closed out a career in pharmacy spanning several decades.

Numbers tell part of the story, but her community involvement tells the rest. While at Seoul National University she served as president of the Women’s Student Committee, and before leaving Korea she was an active member of the Jongro-gu Pharmacist Association. In Delaware she sang in multiple choirs: Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, the Korean Catholic Church of Wilmington, the St. Francis Hospital choir, and the choir at the Osher Life-Long Learning Institute of Delaware. She had a vibrant personality and loved singing and dancing, especially Korean folk dance.

79-Year-Old Pharmacist Sooja Lee Ko Passes Away in Hockessin

A Life Sung in Choirs Across Two Countries

She leaves behind her devoted husband, Soo Sung Ko; her daughter, Tracey Ko Berman, and son-in-law, Joseph Berman, of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania; and her granddaughters, Charlotte and Caroline. She also leaves behind her sister, Young Ja Lee of Seoul, Korea, and her niece, Yoonji Chung. Her memory, the funeral home noted, will be cherished by all who had the privilege to know her.

Friends and family are invited to a prayer service from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, at Chandler Funeral Home in Wilmington, Delaware, with a visitation to follow from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered on Thursday, November 5, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Wilmington, with burial to follow at SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery, 1600 Sproul Rd, Springfield, PA 19064.

Rather than flowers, those wishing to honor Sooja may make donations to the Penn Memory Center at the University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Civic Center Blvd, South Pavillion, 2nd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

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