George Francis Lee died suddenly on Tuesday, September 26, 2017, at his home in Yorkville, California.  He was a man of vision, passion and compassion, who dedicated his life to healing and helping people everywhere – especially women and children.  His passing leaves a deep sadness in his family and friends, and indeed there are hundreds he touched who are grieving.  But through his tireless efforts, many thousands have lived healthier, happier and more secure lives.  He truly left the world a better place.

George loved his family first and foremost.  As a physician, he was the doctor to whom all of his colleagues sent their wives, mothers and daughters.  He was also a focal point of his community, bringing people together in service and celebration.

Born on March 1, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York to George Francis Lee and Winifred Rita Jones, George was the oldest of four brothers and a sister. His family moved to the village of North Chatham in upstate New York when he was twelve. Shortly after the move the two most defining events of his life occurred: his father passed away, and he met Katherine (Kit) Temple, with whom he would share the rest of his life.

At twelve years of age, George became the man of his family.  It was a role he embraced and one he continued to hold throughout his life, as his family enlarged to include his in-laws, later generations, and the many friends who joined the Lee clan.  Even growing up as quickly as he did, and working to help support his mother and siblings, George was the epitome of the American boy.  He excelled in sports, winning trophies and awards including letters in football and baseball.  He was the star quarterback of his high school team, captain of the baseball team, was declared Most Valuable Player in his high school graduating class, and was often lauded by the Albany Times-Union for his hitting and pitching for the North Chatham Royals.  George had an introspective side, walking the woods and fields around North Chatham.  He loved to fish, especially fly-fishing, and recounted meeting the poet Robert Frost on one of his fishing trips in Vermont, and sharing the fish and an evening of conversation.  George learned early to repair and to build things; at sixteen he replaced the foundation and floor of the family’s garage, and rebuilt some of the walls and roof.  He was intelligent and curious about how everything worked.  He was an outstanding student without seeming to try.  He graduated from St. John’s Academy with honors and received a Regent’s Scholarship from the State of New York.

In 1959, George entered the Mater Christi Seminary in Albany, New York, where he was named Prefect.  He dedicated himself to service and was among a small number selected to study at the Vatican.  But George’s faith was not blind, and in his questioning of some of the Church’s teachings, he determined his calling was to serve in a different way and left the Seminary in 1961 to pursue a career in medicine.  Working several jobs, George completed classes at St. Bernadine of Siena College that were required to enter medical school.  He never received an undergraduate degree, but achieved outstanding scores on his entrance exam and was accepted into the Albany Medical College of Union University in Albany, New York, in 1964.  It was in medical school that George grew into the healer and leader that defined his professional career.  He graduated with honors in 1968 and was awarded the Best Bedside Manner, which he was known for throughout his career.  He served as a Captain in U.S. Army Medical Reserves for six years and received an honorable discharge.

George married Kit on August 24, 1963.  He introduced himself to her when they both were twelve by throwing a snake around the handlebars of her bike.  Their first date was a dance in 1954; George’s mother drove them and his brother embarrassed the young couple by announcing when they held hands in the back seat.  They were fast friends through high school and college, dating off and on until George left the Seminary.

Theirs was a love story for the ages.  George and Kit saved carefully and paid for their wedding, having $50 left for their honeymoon – one night in Williamstown, MA and one in Rutland, VT.  Although it was August, the night in Vermont was so cold they came home early and dove into their married life.  George worked three jobs, while Kit worked two.  Their standby dinner was tomato soup with American cheese melted in and poured over slices of white bread, and they drank Koolaid.  Entertainment was playing cards on a weekend night with sisters and brothers, or with friends who would stay in their lives for the next half century. Together George and Kit built a beautiful life and shared it with their extended family and an ever-growing circle of friends.  George paid tribute to Kit and their life together with a 50th anniversary celebration at their Old Chatham Ranch in 2013, with music, dancing, and fine food and wines – including their own Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, and award-winning extra virgin olive oil.

When they married, George and Kit assured everyone they would wait until George finished medical school to start a family.  They welcomed their first child, daughter Barbara, a few days after their first anniversary when George was just starting his first year of medical school.  As soon as he brought his wife and daughter home from the hospital, George carried Barbara up and down the one-street town of North Chatham and introduced her to all the neighbors.  Their second daughter, Kelly, was born three years later.  With his medical training, the hospital allowed George the unusual privilege of staying with his wife in the labor room.  He was delighted with his growing family.

George finished medical school and completed his internship.  He accepted a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of California in San Francisco, and the family moved to California in August of 1969.  George drove their 1965 Valiant across the country with his brother, Don, pulling a trailer of the family’s belongings.  He located a small house in the hills above Mill Valley and readied it for Kit, who was then seven months pregnant, and his daughters.  Son Douglas was born two months later in San Francisco.

In the next years, George dedicated himself to his residency and worked at a family planning clinic in Marin County.  When he wasn’t working at medicine, he built additions onto the family’s home, nearly doubling its size, while Kit landscaped and planted.  In the spring of 1972, Doug was diagnosed with leukemia – for which there was then no effective treatment.  George was able to have Doug included in a clinical trial at UCSF; for the next two years Doug’s illness and experimental therapies shaped the family’s life.  In what then seemed a miraculous outcome, Doug’s cancer went into remission when he was almost five and he made a complete recovery.  

Throughout these years, and indeed through the course of their lives together, George and Kit opened their home to family and friends in need.  George offered counseling and guidance, and became everyone’s father figure.  Whether it was day or night, a cracked forehead or foundation, he was ready with suture or cement.

His professional career took flight.  George was named Chief Resident in 1972 and entered private practice in 1973.  It was a time when the cost of insurance for doctors was soaring, especially for OBGYNs and many were leaving the field.  Although just starting out, George persuaded his colleagues to form a self-insurance collaborative and to adopt a different, more supportive and caring approach to patients who experienced poor outcomes. That small group grew and, with George’s leadership, became the model for physician’s insurance collaboratives across the nation.

By 1974, after a year in practice, George was appointed Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center, a position he held for nearly 25 years.  He also served as Vice Chief of Staff, and as Director of the Women’s Health Center at PPMC.  George was Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UCSF, pioneering techniques in microsurgery and authoring over 60 publications on specialized treatments and techniques, as well as strategies to improve the delivery of care, including a treatise on the importance of “Apology and Disclosure” in 2005.  In 1983, he was a Visiting Professor in Guangdong Provence, in the People’s Republic of China.

George was driven to reshape medical care for women and children, always striving for excellence.  He envisioned and created the Family Birth Place at PPMC; opening in 1985, it was the first integrated labor, delivery and neonatal care facility in California, built to provide the most supportive and nurturing maternal-infant experience of childbirth.  He organized the physicians at PPMC to collaboratively fund the construction of a medical office building adjoining the hospital to provide more immediate access between doctors and their patients in the hospital.

In 1991, George realized his dream to create a leading medical center that ultimately included the merger of the four oldest San Francisco hospitals (Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center, Children’s Hospital of San Francisco, Davies Medical Center, and St. Luke’s Hospital) into the California Pacific Medical Center.  In 2000, readers of the San Francisco Chronicle voted CPMC “best hospital” in the Bay Area.  Under George’s leadership, CPMC joined with the Medical Research Institute of San Francisco to create the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute.  George also led physicians at CPMC to form the California Pacific Medical Group, and then to join with doctors at UCSF to form the Brown and Toland Medical Group.  He continued to innovate and enhance the care experience, helping establish CPMC’s Women’s Health Resource Center, and the Institute for Health and Healing that provides integrative and complimentary medicine services.

At CPMC, George continued as Chairman of OBGYN, also served as Chairman of Pediatrics, Medical Director of the California Campus, Vice President of Medical Affairs, and Executive Assistant to the CEO.  In the course of his career, he served on or led over 40 committees for the betterment of care.  He was active in, and held numerous appointments with, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the California Medical Association and San Francisco Medical Society, the American Hospital Association, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospital Organizations, and Sutter Health.

Over the years, George mentored other physicians, physician groups and hospitals throughout California and across the country.  He worked on legislation to improve care and outcomes both in the California Legislature and with the U.S. Congress.  In particular, he served on the Congressional Conference Committee drafting the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal law that requires anyone coming to an emergency department at a hospital to be stabilized and treated, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.

George served six years on the Board of Directors of the Pacific Presbyterian Medical Group as Chief Financial Officer, five on the Board of Directors of the California Pacific Medical Center, and eleven years on the Board of Trustees of the California Pacific Medical Center Foundation.  He worked tirelessly to secure a site for a new hospital on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, and then on its design and approvals from the City; that hospital complex is now under construction.  He envisioned St. Luke’s as a center of care for San Francisco’s less fortunate and underserved, emphasizing always the obligation to give back, and to lift up.  George also served for thirty-eight years on the Board of Directors of Pan-Med, Ltd., as the Financial Director, and served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Physician’s Reimbursement Fund, Inc., for over 40 years, from its inception until his death.

George was a trusted and compassionate physician, a thoughtful teacher, a visionary leader, and highly respected colleague and mentor.

In 1977, George and Kit came to Yorkville.  Those early years were spent in a camper, then a barn George built, and finally in one of the earliest homes in the valley, that George lovingly restored.  He helped Kit design and plant gardens, orchards and vineyards. This was the home of their hearts and it came to glow with the love they poured into it – honoring their shared past in their childhood hometown, they named it Old Chatham Ranch.

Over the course of forty years, George built Old Chatham Ranch to be the center of his family’s life and an anchor for the Yorkville community.  His daughters were both married there, a sister, and family friends as well.  George and Kit opened their home time and again to family and friends in need, to celebrations large and small, and to gather the community around some common purpose.  Their annual Olive Harvest grew into an event attended by nearly two hundred people.  George insisted there always be ice cream bars for the children, and prizes.  And even as the number of children at the Harvest grew past twenty to thirty or more, each child received a prize and individual recognition from George for picking the largest, or smallest, or greenest, or roundest, or hardest to reach olive.

Within the community of Yorkville, George came to be known as the “Honorary Mayor,” and, with great affection, as “King George.”  He organized Mendocino grape growers and wine makers into an association called Mendocino Wine Growers, Inc. and was an early member and promoter of the Yorkville Highlands Growers and Vintners Association.  He also chaired and promoted the annual Yorkville Highlands Wine Festival to bring recognition to Yorkville wines, sustain the Association, and support the local community, in particular the Yorkville Volunteer Fire Department and the schools.  George served on the Board of Directors of the Mendocino Wine Growers, Inc., the Bond Oversight Committee for the Anderson Valley School Board, and the Performance Improvement Committee for the Anderson Valley Health Center.  He also organized local events and projects to celebrate local history, and his latest project was the refurbishment of an old schoolhouse in the Valley to serve as a museum.

George was grateful for the many blessings in his life.  At meals, wherever he was, he asked all to take a moment to reflect on their good fortune, to express gratitude to all who helped make it possible, and to act in ways large or small to extend their blessings to those who are in need.  George’s family urges those who wish to honor him to do so by helping others, especially women and children.  Suggestions for organizations George supported may be found on the page about Honoring George.

George Francis Lee leaves behind a large family, and many dear friends.  First and foremost, his wife of fifty-four years, Kit.  He also leaves his daughter Barbara Lee and her sons Jonathan and Antonio Joseph; his daughter Kelly Couacaud, and her husband Michael and children Alex and Georgia; and his son Douglas Lee, his partner Lisa, and children Hanlon and Plum.  

George also leaves his siblings and their families:

• Brother, Donald Lee, his wife Maria, and their children Manuel, Michael (Amanda) and Christina Gibson (Steve); and grandchildren Tristan and Kiara; 
• Brother, David Lee, his wife Judy, and their children David, Timothy (Sally), Karen Matuszak (Mick), Jeffrey (Darylee), and Rebecca Gustin (Brent); and grandchildren Camdyn, Kaden, Anna Rose, Griffin, Joshua, Shelby, Cameron and Sydney.
• Sister, Nancy Lee-Evans, her husband Charles, and their children Graham and Elizabeth.
• Sister-in-law, Nancy Falci Lee, and her son Michael and grandson Anthony.

He was pre-deceased by his father George Francis Lee, his mother Winifred Wyatt and her second husband Fred Wyatt, by his brother Richard Lee and Richard’s daughter Jennifer, and by his brother David’s grandson Trevor Matuszak.

George considered Kit’s family to be his family, and they felt the same way about him.  From Kit’s family he leaves:

• Brother-in-law, James Temple, his wife Cherie, and their Children Mark (Paula) and Lisa Yakel (Joseph); and grandchildren Joey, Leiah, Libby, Erica, James, and Margaret.
• Sister-in-law, Mary Blair and her children Stephen (Olivia), Michael (Beth), and Christopher; and her grandchildren Mehren, Holden, and River.
• Sister-in-law, Laura Bennet and her children Margaret Johnson, Katherine (Russ Bartlet), and Erin Roberts; and grandchildren Emma, Ally, and Charlotte
• Sister-in-law, Susan Temple.
• Sister-in-law, Patricia Hromalik (Michael) and her children Nicholas (fiancée Colleen) and Michael.
• Niece Sara Little (Doug) and nephew Brock Rogers (Lynn); and their children Madison, Jake, Sydney and Brody.

He was pre-deceased by his father-in-law Robert Temple, his mother-in-law Laura Temple, his sister-in-law Virginia Rogers (and her husband Peter), and his niece Christine.

George also considered many close friends members of his extended family.  These are too numerous to list here, however a few of his closest friends he leaves are:

• James Black (Bonnie) and their children Heather and Taylor (Emily)
• Leonard Blumin (Patti)
• Larry Turley (Suzanne)
• Patricia Grace
• Diane Woodward
• Scott Woodward (Michelle)

In the wake of his parting, George’s family members and friends are left asking, “What would George do?”  George would mark this passing and loss, and we ask all who cared for, or were touched by George to join us to honor him on November 11, 2017.  Details and directions are provided on the Invitation page.

George would also urge all of us to hold our loved ones close, and to lift our gaze to look for a way to make this a better, kinder and more loving world.  We ask you to do this for him.

In lieu of flowers, please consider supporting one of the organizations listed in the Honoring George page that were important to him.