A Bridge Built on Humility, Trust Forged in Emptiness: Daniel Oh

From the Path of Priesthood to a Leading Korean Figure in Colorado… “What Kind of Volunteer Are You?”

How can one define Daniel Oh in a single phrase? For over 35 years, he has been active in the Denver area as a commercial real estate broker, CPA, insurance agent, and published poet. Before his professional career, he stood at the crossroads of Catholic ordination—a path he had walked since middle school—before choosing the life of a layman. After completing a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a year of a master’s program in theology at Gwangju Catholic University, he embarked on studying abroad at the St. Thomas Catholic Seminary in Colorado in 1975. This marked the beginning of a life in the United States that has spanned 51 years.

Upon requesting an interview, Oh expressed hesitation, saying he “didn’t know what to say.” Although well known in the local Colorado society as an Asian leader who bridged the Asia-Pacific community and mainstream America, his multifaceted background spanning various fields made formulating a question a formidable task.

■ Earning Mainstream Trust Through Service and Dedication
Credibility. This is the value Oh emphasizes most. “Once a relationship of trust is formed with Americans, it is not shaken by ordinary storms,” he testifies. Because this unique relationship carries a sensitivity that can collapse with a single voluntary mistake or misstep, he says faith and trust between people must be emphasized. He was asked how to build such unshakable trust.
Having once aspired to the priesthood, Oh proved adept at finding links in worlds that seemed irreparably disconnected—between the clerical and lay societies, Korean and American cultures, and the divine and human realms. The key to simultaneously opening two tightly shut doors, he says, is “service and dedication.”

In the 1970s, language was a massive barrier for the Korean community in Colorado. Having taken English-only courses from foreign professors during his seminary years and having served in the Civil Affairs Team of the UN Command, Oh was fluent in English, Latin, and Korean. Volunteering as an interpreter for the Aurora Police Department, he dedicated himself to educating the Korean community about the unfamiliar American policing system and raising awareness of cultural differences. It was a time when many Koreans did not realize that phrases like “I’ll kill you!”—often thrown around lightly in Korean when voices were raised over trivial matters—were entirely unacceptable in the United States.

■ Find What the Other Party Needs Most
What exactly did Korean and American figures seek from Oh’s counsel? Over decades of putting down roots in Colorado, he became a figure of institutional focus due to his contributions toward bridging cultural diversity gaps and his humanitarian service achievements. He has served in advisory roles for various U.S. government bodies, including as Chair of the Asian Advisory Council under Governors Bill Owens and Bill Ritter, and as an Asian advisor for the Mayor of Denver and the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Every problem can be solved, and the person who can solve it is hidden somewhere,” Oh says. When asked how one finds such a person, he replied, “It requires service that lets go of everything, along with steady diligence. The ‘Inner Circle’ does not come to you by chance.” Through the expansive network he built via volunteerism, Oh became the man who could always find that indispensable person.

■ Four Types of Volunteers, and What Service Brings to Life
We are constantly encouraged to volunteer, yet we often wonder why we should. Dedication feels far removed from sweet rewards. Beyond fleeting pride and the emptiness that can sometimes feel like a waste of labor and time, what else is there to gain? Thus, many dismiss volunteering as merely an “unavoidable chore.”
Oh possesses a concrete understanding of both the practical efficacy of service and the undeniable, if not strictly logical, ripple effects of dedication. “Through volunteering, trust and relationships are generated, and you learn to identify the needs of others. Volunteering isn’t just something you do when you have spare time; it’s done by willingly laying down your own life,” he states.

He categorized volunteers into four types. First, the aspiring volunteer. Full of passion but lacking experience, they require some training and nurturing, and often face burnout due to their overflowing enthusiasm. Second, the methodical volunteer. Though straightforward in silently executing only assigned tasks, their steady and stable nature provides tremendous long-term strength. Third, the natural-born volunteer. Gifted with an innate ability to keenly perceive what others need, they excel at offering exceptional solutions. Fourth, the self-serving volunteer. The worst of all types, their service creates no ripple effect of dedication and can instead negatively impact those around them.

■ One Must Empty Oneself to Avoid Being Emptied
“I know of no secret to success other than the many people who have helped me along the way,” he added. “Wealth and success are like stacking coins. If you stack them out of greed, they are bound to collapse. You must find a balanced point, stop stacking, and continually take things away.”
When asked what and how one should subtract, he continued. “Material wealth is essential in life. The weight of necessary wealth varies according to each person’s situation and capacity. I don’t mean to belittle that fact; rather, we must never forget that ‘balance’ is the most vital virtue in human life. To measure that balance, one must enter the room of solitude.”

Staring at a well-worn notebook, he recalled American leaders who once garnered public respect and envy only to vanish into history, as well as the numerous names of those who were once friends and have now passed on. “A misstep destroys trust, and everything you built vanishes.” Their missteps were the result of failing to resist momentary temptations and impulses.

“Wealth inevitably invites temptation, and temptation brings the ruin of relationships. You must distance yourself from excessive extravagance or undeserved protocol. If you find yourself accustomed to the world’s sweetness, you must boldly discard it and purify yourself.” Emphasizing that donation is also a “ritual of purification” of letting oneself go, he writes in the solitude of his room through lonely contemplation. The languages of solitude and silence that ultimately survived the repeated process of emptying and discarding have established him as a literary figure. Following the publication of his fifth poetry collection, The Flower Called Today – Companionship, earlier this year, he is now preparing to publish his sixth.

■ Why He Built a Bridge No One Could See
In an unfamiliar land where mere survival was overwhelming, why did he continue to build invisible bridges? He accepted the reality that what people need most is found in the lowest places, not the highest, and that one can be accepted as a full member of society only when discovering and fulfilling those needs. This acceptance translated into action. The Republic of Korea Contribution Award for Volunteer Service, the Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Award, the Asian Hero Award, the UNESCO Achievement Award, the Presidential Commendation of the Republic of Korea, the Governor of Colorado’s Commendation, and the Mayor of Denver’s Commendation are the evidence.

“As you live each day faithfully and humbly accept your place wherever that may be, the shape of the life you aimed for dimly reveals itself,” he says. He emphasized that by remembering ‘what we live for’ and maintaining a distance that is neither too close nor too far from our goals, we can live a balanced life.
Though he did not bridge the boundary between God and humanity as a priest, he contributed to breaking down the boundaries between the once thoroughly segregated mainstream American and Asian societies. He knew that mutual misunderstanding is not narrowed through rigid mechanisms like laws and contracts. He grasped that genuine understanding from the heart and invisible trust serve as the bridges that connect us.

Organizing and screening Asian film festivals to share Eastern sentiments with Americans, actively participating in the planning of the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival project, and serving as an Aurora Human Relations commissioner for the Aurora Sister Cities International to establish a sister-city relationship between Seongnam and Aurora were all efforts to lower cultural barriers between the East and West and foster mutual understanding. As a result of these steadfast efforts, Oh was featured as a key Korean-American leader in the Aurora History Museum’s 2012 special exhibition, An Epic Journey: Aurora’s Asian/Pacific Communities.

The establishment of Aurora’s “Yu Gwan-sun Day” in 2019 stands as one of Oh’s major achievements. He drafted materials introducing martyr Yu Gwan-sun, the significance of the March 1st Korean Independence Movement, and the reasons for establishing the commemorative day in a way that high-ranking U.S. government officials could understand. The weight of the Asian community network closely tied to him was not taken lightly by American officials. Despite diplomatic obstruction attempts by the Japanese Consul General and the Japanese government, the City of Aurora approved the agenda. Subsequently, Aurora began celebrating March 1st as “Yu Gwan-sun Day” annually, expanding its support and providing educational programs to help American teachers understand the martyr and the history of the Japanese colonial era. He recalled this achievement as “the product of the trusting relationships we call ‘networking.'”

Saying “Knowledge is a tool,” he stresses to all generations the need for lifelong learning and insists that acquired knowledge and know-how must be shared with society. “They call it ‘Show and Tell.’ Do not hesitate to speak in front of people. Do it not to show off your knowledge, but with sincerity and a heart dedicated to everyone. True connection requires truth. And among them, there might just be the exact person you have been desperately seeking.”

In a modern society where sprinting toward the highest and most shining position is considered the virtue of a diligent life, Daniel Oh emphasizes the paradox of lowering and emptying oneself. He waits for the intangible trust scattered in those emptied spaces to be filled with tangible relationships by the next generation of immigrants.

< By Susan Lee | Colorado Times>