Chung, Margaret, 1889-1959

Margaret Chung was born in 1890 in Santa Barbara, California. Her parents were both native-born Chinese who, when they were very young, came to America with their parents. They were devout Christians who insisted their children practice daily prayers and attend church twice every Sunday. Margaret Chung grew up on a 24,000-acre ranch in Ventura County where her father was the foreman. As a child, she explored every aspect of the outdoor life on the ranch with her inquisitive mind and endless energy, often riding horseback along with the ranch hands to mend fences and herd cattle. She was the eldest of eleven children and played a major role in the upbringing of her brothers and sisters.

With sheer determination, Chung pursued her ambition in the medical field. She won a scholarship to college by selling a large number of subscriptions for the Los Angeles Times, and graduated from the University of Southern California, College of Physicians and Surgeons. Her first choice was to serve as a medical missionary, but she was barred because of her Chinese nationality. Chung interned at hospitals in Los Angeles and Chicago and then became staff resident at the State Hospital for the Insane in Kankakee, Illinois, where a well-known Chicago criminologist recognized her brilliance and compassionate understanding of mental disorders. With him, she established Chicago's first juvenile psychopathic institute. At 26 years of age, Chung was appointed criminologist for the State of Illinois, but she disliked the nature of this position because life or death decisions depended on a criminal's sanity or insanity. She preferred to cure people and to concentrate on surgical cases.

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