“Mr. Lee!”
It was noon on October 30 at a Mobil gas station in South Los Angeles. More than a hundred people gathered, chanting a Korean American’s name.
The gas station was packed with a crowd including Councilmember Heather Hutt, LAPD and LAFD officials, longtime gas station employees, community members, and nearby high school students.
They had gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the gas station, which was run by 84-year-old Kyo Seok Lee. Lee was presented with a plaque of appreciation, and he returned heartily with gifts and food.
For half a century Lee has owned the Mobil gas station at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard and Buckingham Road in South LA’s predominantly black neighborhood.
In the 1970s, Korean Americans who owned businesses in the area expanded into LA Koreatown and other neighborhoods as the immigrant population surged.
However, Lee never left the South LA community, where he had started as an immigrant. “I came to the U.S. in the ’70s and grew up with the Korean-American community and lived through the LA riots in the ’90s,” he said, ”but the most rewarding part is being a part of the South LA community.”
In Korea in the early 1970s, Lee learned English while working as a manager at a U.S. Eighth Army cloth factory. His diligence was soon recognized and he was scouted as a team leader in the international division of Keangnam Enterprise.
While working for the U.S. military, Lee longed for America. He dreamed of a better life and educating his children in the U.S. He arrived in LA on an invitation from a friend who had come to the U.S. two years earlier. Only two hundred dollars was what he had.
Without knowing anyone in a strange land, Lee saw an advertisement in the newspaper for a job at a Mobil gas station in Compton. After meeting with the business owner, Yun Kyu Kim, and started working within just three days.
The wage at the time was $1.25 an hour. Lee pumped gas in the hot Southern California sun with no shade.
The next year, the company offered him a chance to manage his own gas station in LA. It was a big opportunity for Lee, but he hesitated. The minimum capital to open a gas station was $11,000. That was a lot of money compared to other typical businesses requiring capital of $2,000 to $3,000 at the time.
However, his boss was certain. Kim told Lee he would lend me the money and promised that he must succeed. Lee worked 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, at the gas station he opened at the intersection of Crenshaw and Venice Boulevards. He couldn’t find an apartment, so he lived in a garage where he worked on cars, but he was grateful and happy to be there. After a year of hard work, Lee saved and paid off $11,000 to Kim.
At the intersection, the competition among gas stations was fierce. The head office recommended moving to another location, where it currently stands, to avoid competition.
The business environment was harsh in a new place, but the people were genuine and warm. Although some items would go missing from time to time, Lee taught his employees to look past petty theft because the community always helped so much.
After a year of running the gas station, he began hiring employees from the local community. Lee’s good deeds and unbiased attitude led local residents to volunteer to protect the gas station during the LA riots. While neighboring stores were burned and looted, Lee’s gas station was unharmed.
After 50 years in the same spot, children of Lee’s customers grew up to become young adults and heads of households and returned to the gas station and dozens of employees came and went.
In 1997, he became president of the Southern California Mobile Gas Station Association. At that time, the organization had about 50 members. There were 150 to 200 Korean Americans who owned gas stations, including Chevron, Arco, and others, but the number has decreased dramatically.
For Mobil, the company closes unprofitable locations at the end of the lease. The company’s criteria for lease are also strict, assessing location, English proficiency, and profitability, which makes it difficult for new leases. Instead of using his profits to open more gas stations, Lee bought the land for the current location in 1983 to bolster his financial health.
During his decades of business in South LA, Lee donated money to local city council members, police and fire departments, high school sports teams, churches, and community parks. He ran a business, but he chose to be a part of the community over making a buck.
The gas station’s 50th-anniversary celebration brought together public officials and local residents to thank Lee for his support of community causes.
Until late last year, Lee was working seven to eight hours a day, six days a week. Today, Lee still works wherever it needs his hands, such as cashiering, cleaning restrooms, and cleaning gas pumps.
“I did business with the community,” he said. “After 50 years, I am still here because they were here. Seeing the grateful sincerity on their faces is all I need. That’s what my 50 years of business is all about.”
BY EUNYOUNG LEE, HOONSIK WOO [lee.eunyoung6@koreadaily.com]
