KI SUH PARK
Alumnus of the Year

Ki Suh Park is the Design and Managing Partner (CEO) of Gruen Associates which he joined in 1961. He directs the worldwide architectural, planning, transportation, environmental, landscape architecture and interior design activities of the firm. He arrived in the United States from his native South Korea in 1953, under the sponsorship of author James Michener and artist Norman Rockwell. He attended East Los Angeles College from March of 1953 to June 1954. Ki Suh received a B.A. in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1957 (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa), as well as two graduate degrees in Architecture (1959) and City Planning (1961) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was the first Korean American to be named to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1986, and to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 1999. He was the recipient of the 1994 Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award from the AIA for his significant contributions to society. In 2003 he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Korean Institute of Architects. Ki Suh is an architect with a bold vision, a planner with a social conscience and a community leader with empathy. His major projects include: the Los Angeles Convention Center Expansion; the South Coast Plaza Shopping Center, Costa Mesa; Citibank Tower and Mandiri Bank Tower in Jakarta, Indonesia; the Daehan Kyuyuk Insurance Company Tower, Seoul, Korea; the 2,000 seat Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa; the Munger Science Center at Harvard-Westlake School in North Hollywood; the Center for Early Education in West Hollywood; the Beverly Hills Five Parking Structures on Santa Monica Boulevard; several Southern California specialty stores for Lladro, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior; the Koreatown Plaza in Los Angeles: and the location and design of the Century (I-105) Freeway which took 25 years from its inception. As a result of Ki Suh’s long and illustrious career and his sense of civic duty, he serves on the boards of numerous organizations, such as the California Community Foundation, the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco, the John Wayne Cancer Institute, the Harvard-Westlake School, and the UCLA Foundation. He is presently chairman of the board of the Korean American Museum and is past chairman of the Citizens Advisory Committee for Transportation Quality for the U.S. Secretary of Transportation and of the Korean American Coalition on whose national board he still serves. Ki Suh is a member of the Advisory Board for the Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy, USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, and an adjunct professor of the School of Architecture at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu. Other accomplishments include the 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Service from the AIA California Council; and the 2000 Presidential Design Achievement Award from President Clinton for the I-70 Highway through the scenic Glenwood Canyon in Colorado. Ki Suh is married to Ildong Chey Park. They have three children, David, Kevin, and Edwin, and two granddaughters, Kathryn and Kristina.

PHILIP A. COHEN
Corporate Citizen of the Year

Philip A. Cohen is Chief Executive Officer of Garfield Medical Center and Monterey Park Hospital. He is a dynamic healthcare executive who is nationally respected for his experience, leadership, understanding and ability to inspire others.

Phil was born in New York City and grew up there, earning both bachelors and masters degrees from the City University of New York. In 1978, he received a master’s degree in Health Services Administration from Arizona State University and just six months later, was named Executive Director of a hospital in Phoenix. He then directly managed two hospitals in Arizona and one in Los Angeles. He was promoted to Regional Vice President and was responsible for four hospitals, including facilities in California, Arizona and Colorado.
In 1989, Phil assumed the position of Executive Director of West Valley Hospital and Health Center in Canoga Park, CA, where he increased operating income and developed cost containment programs for the 139-bed non-profit community hospital.

He joined Tenet Healthcare Corporation in 1994 and was responsible for a 127-bed acute care hospital, an 80-bed rehabilitation hospital and three medical office buildings pioneering a program in high tech robotic assisted surgery. Phil came to Garfield Medical Center and Monterey Park Hospital two years later in 1996. As CEO, he directs a team of more than 1,700 professionals who have served over 19,000 patients and provided 73,000 outpatient visits and procedures in 2003.

Under his leadership, both facilities continue to be recognized for their high-quality medical care, support services and community outreach. Services that distinguish these hospitals include open heart surgery, cardiac catheterization and neonatal services at Garfield and obstetrical, general acute care and diabetic treatment services at Monterey Park Hospital. Garfield has evolved into a major regional medical center for the Asian community of the San Gabriel Valley. Monterey Park Hospital has become a facility of choice for the primarily Hispanic population of Monterey Park and East Los Angeles.

Phil is a five- time recipient of Tenet Healthcare’s prestigious Circle of Excellence Award, an honor that recognizes outstanding leadership and is presented to the corporation’s top-performing CEOs. Phil is a leader who recognizes the value of his employees and physicians. His hospitals typically achieve top tier scores for employee and physician satisfaction. Patient satisfaction as rated by the patients of his hospitals is equally as high.

Phil is a Diplomat of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Throughout his 26-year career, he has lent his expertise and vision to both professional and community organizations, including the Federation of American Health Care Systems, United Hospital Association, and Rotary International. He is currently serving as President of the West San Gabriel Valley Boys and Girls Club of America, further evidence of his strong commitment to serve the needs of the community he works in. This Boys and Girls Club is one of the most proactive clubs in Los Angeles County providing after school programs, computer education, scientific learning and exploration and promoting social activism for the youth in the community through anti-drug education and support of teenage pregnancy prevention. Through his leadership as President, these programs have continued to expand into the community.

He has always taken a special interest in East Los Angeles College. His efforts were noteworthy in helping the college bring the Mural by Maestro Raul Anguiano to fruition, so all students of the College and community members could be inspired and appreciate the artwork of this world renowned muralist. He has also sponsored a scholarship for students to pursue nursing as a career.

Phil lives in Brentwood with his wife, Karen. They have a daughter, Peri, who is a sales associate for Los Angeles Magazine. He enjoys tennis, golf and skiing and is active at Mountaingate Country Club, where he serves on the Board of Advisors and is past President of the Tennis Board of Governors.

GRETE AND WILLY NORUP
Patrons of the Year

Born in Denmark, Grete and Willy Norup met and married in the United States. Willy was a soils engineer who eventually entered the publishing industry, writing manuals on work systems. Grete was an interior designer. It was as art students attending a workshop in Puget Sound, Washington, when they met American watercolorist Milford Zornes. They studied under the artist and quickly became interested in his collection of paintings from Greenland. Fond of the simplicity and courage of Zornes’ work, they decided to purchase the entire collection of paintings in order to guarantee its preservation. Recently, based on the recommendation of Zornes and Bill Anderson of the Anderson Gallery, the Norups were encouraged to donate the collection to the Vincent Price Art Gallery at East Los Angeles College. Grete and Willy Norup have been married for 47 years and have four children and four grandchildren. The couple continues to paint watercolors, devoting the last eight years to painting and traveling. They have painted landscapes and other types of work on five different continents. They live in Sonoma, California when not traveling the world with their easels.

VINCENT PRICE ART GALLERY FOUNDATION

For over 50 years, the Vincent Price Gallery & Art Museum on the campus of East Los Angeles College, has been serving the community by presenting world class art exhibitions. The utilization of the gallery’s superb art collection offers a unique hands-on educational resource that has inspired generations of deserving students, several of which have achieved successful careers of their own in the art world, including such notable alumni as Gronk, Diane Gamboa, Gilbert Lujan, Edward James Olmos, Kent Twitchell, John Valadez, Patssi Valdez, George Yepes, Gajin Fujita, and many others. After visiting the college campus in 1951, noted actor and art collector, Vincent Price, and Mary Grant Price (then Mrs. Price), became aware of the very real need for students in this community to have the opportunity of experiencing original art works first-hand, and with the donation of 90 art works from their personal collection, they established the first “teaching art collection” owned by a community college in the United States. East Los Angeles College continues to be one of the very few two-year colleges in the United States to own a major art collection. The widely acclaimed Vincent Price Gallery & Art Museum exhibitions attract many thousands of eager visitors to each show, many of whom have never witnessed a work of art in person, or have ever visited a gallery or museum – for them, and so many others, the Vincent Price Gallery & Art Museum has been their first “window” to the world of art. Today, the Vincent Price Gallery & Art Museum Art Collection contains more than 3,000 pieces that have been donated (over a period of many years) by Vincent Price and numerous other contributors, and includes art works from Africa, New Guinea, ancient Egypt, Greece, Mexico, North America, South America, and works by important artists from the Renaissance to the present day; Carlos Almaraz, Bill Anderson, Raœl Anguiano, Don Bachardy, Bonnard, Hans Burkhardt, Cocteau, Rafael Coronel, Jose Luis Cuevas, Dali, Daumier, Delacroix, Diebenkorn, Disney, Dürer, Egon Schiele, Ernst, Goya, Patrick Graham, Gronk, Hiroshige I, David Hockney, Kollwitz, Rico Lebrun, Lichtenstein, Lowry, Luks, Maillol, Manet, Rodolfo Martinez, Matisse, Arnold Mesches, Miller, Andre Miripolsky, Miro, Felipe Orlando, Pajaud, Patssi Valdez, Picasso, Piranesi, Rauschenberg, Odilon Redon, Jesus “Chucho” Reyes, Frank Romero, Marc Rothko, Rouault, Arthur Secunda, Siqueiros, Steinitz, Tamayo, Tobey, Utrillo, Patssi Valdez, Vasarely, George Yepes, Milford Zornes, Zuñiga and other major contributors to world art history are represented in the collection. The Vincent Price Gallery & Art Museum urgently needs your support in order to continue the unique art educational program created and nurtured by the late Vincent Price, that has become such an important legacy for the students of East Los Angeles College, the citizens of the east side, and all of the Los Angeles area community. In addition to cash donations, the Vincent Price Art Gallery Foundation welcomes gifts of art works to the gallery’s famed art collection, as well as contributions of supplies and materials, art books, and equipment that can enhance our educational program and improve the gallery facilities.

For further information, contact the Gallery Director at:

1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez, Monterey Park, California, 91754.
Telephone 323 265-8841, Facsimile 323 260-8173, or
Email: vincentpricegallery@hotmail.com.