Paull Shin
Senator

Paull Shinn was born in 1935 in South Korea.  His father abandoned his family early in his life, and his mother died when Shin was four years old.  After her death, Shin lived on the streets of Seoul, beginning for food and money.  In 1950, at the start of the Korean War, Shin began working for a group of United States Army Officers and in 1954 was adopted by one of the men, Ray Paull.  Upon moving to Salt Lake City, Utah with his adoptive father, Shin enrolled in a GED program, which he completed in eighteen months despite never having received any formal education in Korea.  He went on to receive a BA, MPIA, MA, and Ph.D.

In 1992 Shin was elected to the Washington State House of Representatives.  In 1994 he ran for the United States House of Representatives, and though he lost that election, he was elected into the Washington State Senate in 1998.  He and his wife Donna have several adopted children and he has been a board member of the World Association of Children and Parents.

Information from the orphan society and wikipedia.