Dr. Richard S. "Doc" Lee

11/12/03: Public memorial services for Dr. Richard Lee have been scheduled for Tuesday, November 25, at 1 pm, at the Stanford Chapel, with a
reception to follow and Dick's home afterwards. All are invited to come and share their memories with Family and Friends. Dicks address is 650 Los Trancos Rd, Portola Valley. Take Alpine Rd to Los Trancos turn left on Los Trancos and go 7/10 of a mile and turn left up the drive way and follow the signs to 650.

- Russel J. Lee

11/10/03: There will be a viewing at Roller and Hapgoods in Palo Alto all day this coming Saturday.

Russ

11/23/03: I sincerely doubt if I have even met anyone who was as dedicated a member of the Sports Car Club of America as the Doc.

When he was racing, he was a terror on the race track...as well as the first one to help out a fellow competitor who was in need.

When he became the Region's Chief Medical Officer, he jumped in with both feet and whatever else was available to improve the safety aspect of our sport.

Way back when, in the mid-70's, the Region's Board decided to purchase our own fleet of ambulance units to try to reduce the per race weekend expenditures for hired units. Dick was instrumental in the process of selection and maintenance of the units. Sometimes, he would be in a real hurry to accomplish a task with the ambulances and was always trying to save the Club a buck or two in the process, such as re-wiring the emergency light systems, and he cut a few corners in the process. At one point, it became a matter of humor with the Region's Board and we had to really convince him that it was OK to spend the money to have the wiring professionally replaced and updated.

I think one of my fondest memories of Dick was watching him sit in the back of the meeting room, at our Annual Meetings, with an earpiece in his ear listening to the Cal/Stanford football games. I could always tell by the smile on his face if Stanford scored and would interrupt the meeting to inquire as to the latest score. (He and I shared a special bond about Stanford.)

To say that Dick was dedicated to the Club is truly an understatement. Every member of the Club is so much better off today because of this man's dedication to the sport. He will truly be missed.

- Marty Kaufman

11/20/03: A Tribute to Doctor Richard Lee by SFR Member Gregg Schlaman.

11/18/03: Another obituary, from the Palo Alto Weekly, with a nice story at the end.

Uploaded: Friday, November 14, 2003, 9:40 a.m.

Richard (Dick) Lee, M.D., dies at 85
Eldest son of Palo Alto Medical Clinic founder Russel V.A.
Lee succumbs to leukemia after a life in medicine and sports-car racing

by Jay Thorwaldson

Richard Stanford "Dick" Lee, a longtime obstetrician/gynecologist at the Palo Alto Medical Clinic and eldest son of Clinic founder Russel Van Arsdale Lee, died Nov. 9 at 85 of leukemia.

Dr. Lee during his medical career delivered babies for generations of Palo Alto area mothers and was well-loved by his patients, his son, Rich Lee, M.D., a family practice physician at the Stanford Health Service, recalled.

But Dr. Lee's twin passion for most of his life was racing Porsche sports cars. In later years he actively worked to improve racing safety and provided medical services at races in Laguna Seca near Monterey, Sears Point in the North Bay and other race tracks -- becoming known as the inventor of the racing safety harness (adapted from his flying experiences during World War II).

Memorial services will be held Tuesday, Nov. 25 at 1:30 p.m. p.m. at the Stanford Memorial Church, with the Rev. Scotty McLennan officiating.

He is survived by his three brothers, all physicians: Peter Lee of Los Angeles; Philip R. Lee of Palo Alto; and Hewlett Lee of Portola Valley. A sister, Margo Paulsen, M.D., died in 1973 -- she was the wife of the late James Paulsen, a psychiatrist at the Clinic for many years.

The Lee family made its mark on the Palo Alto region in 1924, when Russel Lee moved from San Francisco to Palo Alto and joined the medical practice of Dr. Tom Williams. On Dr. Williams retirement, he formed a series of partnerships that ultimately became the Palo Alto Clinic -- one of the first non-specialty group medical practices in the nation.

Dick Lee was raised in a house built by his father at 440 Gerona Road, Stanford, and survived a bout of polio as a young child that left him with a slight limp made worse later in life from vehicle accidents and a hip replacement. He attended one of the first classes of Peninsula School in Menlo Park. Russel Lee died in 1982.

Dick attended Palo Alto High School, then briefly Pomona College in Southern California, from which he flunked out and moved to Westminster College in Spanish Fork, Utah, his father's native town, where he earned a college letter in swimming. He also attended the University of Michigan for a quarter.

He received his M.D. in 1944 from the Stanford School of Medicine, then in San Francisco. He did his OB/gyn residency at San Francisco General Hospital and Kaiser Permanente.

During World War II, Dick and Peter joined the Army and Philip and Hewlett joined the Navy, all serving as medical officers -- Dick at the Hamilton Air Base of the U.S. Army Air Corps before it became the Air Force. He was stationed in the Philippines and in Korea, and ultimately became a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserves -- he was called up during the Korean War and, briefly, during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1963.

After two unsuccessful early marriages, he married Louise Tower, a nurse he met at Hamilton Air Base. He and "Lou" had a close companionship until her death in 1999. They had four children, Russel, Patty (who died in 1995), Rich and Peter.

During his medical career, he took an active interest in the needs of pregnant teens and unwed mothers.

"He was vocal about contraception to the point of generating controversy," Rich Lee recalled. "He would rather prevent pregnancies than see abortions -- before abortion was legalized." The Lees also took a series of girls into their home until they delivered and decided either to keep the baby or put it up for adoption.

Dick Lee's love of speed began as a youth, when he took up racing his Indian motorcycle around a dirt track at the Stanford Stadium -- and once got caught riding it across the Stanford Golf Course. He also was an avid flyer.

He regularly raced from 1958 to 1973, when he shifted to providing medical services for race drivers. He was named regional director and later national medical director for the Sports Car Club of America. In 1966, he was severely injured when he was instructing a student race driver at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, and the car went out of control and hit a large concrete barrier. He also had broken a leg in a motorcycle accident at the Lee compound, passing it off for years to family members as a bicycle accident.

In both medicine and racing, "he had a mischievous sense of humor, and was not afraid to use it," Rich recalled -- citing the time his father showed up in a Harpo Marx wig with a bulb-horn after a nurse admonished him that there should be "no clowning around here."

- Alan Mertens

11/17/03: Dick Lee was an institution at SCCA events for well over 30 years, first as a Porsche driver and then as SFR`s resident race physician.

With his clinic, pair of ambulances and team of Doctors and Nurses at every event, Dick and his wife Louise would be a constant presence, taking care of anyone who needed medical care and attention (sometime dispensing a portion of blunt advice at the same time)

I first met Dick in 1985, being introduced by one of his racing nurses at a Sears Point event. When I decided to become a flagger, he quickly made me welcome as an honorary member of the medical crew as well. Dick and Lou would share their enthusiasm, hospitality and unique outlook on life on every possible occasion.

The Porsche racing stories were endless and the membership list of drivers in the "upside down club" was kept up to date each season. The spirit and cohesion of the medical crew alwys made you feel like you were in good hands.....and they always seemed capable of lifting spirits back up when the going got tough at the track and I`m personally very grateful for all their help along the way in that department.

He was also a lover of the jazz music played long ago in San Francisco by Lu Watters and the Yerba Buena Jazz Band, Bob Scobey, and Clancy Hayes (with the Original Salty Dogs). "Here....listen to this" he would say, "nobody else knows this stuff"


Truly a unique character.
Good luck and Thanks old friend!

- Alan Mertens, F&C

11/13/03: From the San Jose Mercury News, 11/13/03:

Dr. Richard Lee, P.A. obstetrician
By Jessie Seyfer
Mercury News

Longtime Palo Alto obstetrician Dr. Richard Stanford Lee, part of a dynasty of local physicians, died of leukemia Sunday. He was 84.

Dr. Lee was the son of the late Dr. Russel V.A. Lee, a health commissioner under former President Truman and one of the founders of the Palo Alto Medical Clinic, the first group medical practice on the West Coast. All five of the elder Lee's children went on to become doctors and to play nationally prominent roles in health care.

Like his father, Richard Stanford Lee embraced widespread health education about such topics as abortion and contraception -- issues that were at least as controversial 50 years ago as they are today.

Dr. Lee also shared his father's daredevil streak. The elder Lee took up flying late in life, and Richard Stanford Lee was a pilot and raced a Porche Speedster at the amateur level for about 15 years, according to his son, Rich Lee, who is also a Palo Alto-area physician.

After his racing career, Dr. Lee became the national and regional medical director for the Sports Car Club of America, providing medical services to a variety of amateur and professional car racing events for more than 25 years, his son said.

But his main contribution to the Palo Alto community was working as an obstetrician at the Palo Alto Medical Clinic, later the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, from 1952 to his retirement in 1984.

Born in San Francisco and raised in Palo Alto, he went to Palo Alto High School and Pomona College, where he earned a liberal arts degree. He graduated from Stanford Medical School in 1945. From July 1945 to March 1947, he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, and was later recalled to serve in the Korean War. He retired from the military as a lieutenant colonel in 1969.

Dr. Lee met his wife, Louise, while he was in the service. She was working as a nurse, and they married in 1952. She went on to become extremely active in race-car medicine before her death in 1999, their son said.

Dr. Lee began amateur racing in 1958, and used to say it was ``an era when the drivers were fat and the tires were skinny,'' his son said. He is credited for setting higher standards for trauma medical care for drivers and their crews at races.

As an obstetrician, he was strongly pro-choice, and believed in educating women about contraception, his son said.

When abortion was illegal, Dr. Lee would open his home to unwed pregnant women who couldn't keep their babies, and help them arrange for adoption, ``so they wouldn't have to withstand scrutiny in their own towns,'' Rich Lee said.

``We had a lot of pregnant babysitters,'' he said.

Dr. Lee served on the executive boards of Planned Parenthood and the California Interagency Council on Family Planning.

Throughout his life, ``he was absolutely adored by both his patients, his comrades in the Air Force and all those in the medical SCCA community,'' his son said. ``He was always motivated by simple love of his work and the people he worked with.''

Dr. Richard Stanford Lee

Born: July 29, 1919, in San Francisco

Died: Nov. 9, 2003, in Palo Alto

Survived by: Sons, Dr. Richard D. Lee of La Honda, Russel J. Lee of Santa Rosa and Peter M. Lee of Santa Cruz; brothers, Dr. Peter D. Lee of Los Angeles, Dr. Philip Lee of Palo Alto and Dr. R. Hewlett Lee of Palo Alto.

Services: Visitation on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Roller Hapgood and Tinney , 980 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. Memorial: Service planned for Nov. 25 at Stanford Memorial Church at 1 p.m.

11/12/03: I don't know what directed me to the site today, since I have not been a member for a couple of years now. Doc Lee has been on my mind a lot lately, even though I've not seen him for some time.

Doc and Lou helped me bring back my sanity by allowing me to be part of the medical team from the summer of 1991 until the spring of 2001, when I felt as if I was squeezed out of service. At the time I joined I'd just completed my first major back surgery and never thought I would get the chance to work as an RN again. My first event was IMSA at Laguna Seca the summer of 1991.

I was a mainstay of the Sears Point NASCAR race clinic from 1992 to 2000, and mostly worked Laguna Seca events. I spoke to Doc about joining the SCCA immediately after the Sears Point NASCAR race and he welcomed me with open arms. Never mind my back was shot; they'd find something to do with me.

It was great to be giving help to people who really wanted my assistance, even though at times the care we could give was limited by the supplies we had. (Doc was real good at "borrowing" stuff!) There was camaraderie between the medical and on-track emergency services back then and going to races was fun. Ah the good old days! I remember how proud Doc was of being the National Medical Services chief in the mid-1990s. He was really into it.

For anyone who came after Doc Lee's time, you missed meeting a class act who really loved the San Francisco Region SCCA. I was there after Doc and Lou's prime (so to speak) but those two were truly there for the competitors, crews and on-track workers.

Russel, I was awakened by that thunderclap at 5 a.m. I live in San Jose now. I usually sleep through that stuff. I think he was saying goodbye to me too! Godspeed Doc. You and Lou and Patty can raise a little hell in Heaven now!

- Catherine Frazier, RN (medical 1991 to 2001)

11/10/03: It is with tremendous sorrow that I inform you of the death of long time member and club benefactor, Dr. Richard Lee. He succumbed to Leukemia on Sunday, November 9, 2003. As further information becomes available it will be posted on this page.

R.I.P.

RJ

11/10/03: Hello Everyone. My Name is Russel Lee aka to the club as Rusty. I am Dicks Lee's oldest, and one time member/racer as well. I regret to inform you that Dick died on Sunday morning 11-9-2003 at 5:00 am.

Dick was in the company of loved ones at the time. There was a thunder clap at the exact moment that Dick passed. Several of his friends and Family in the area woke to this thunder clap and knew...

There will be services in the next two weeks TBA, and there will be a viewing at Roller and Hapgood in Palo Alto, TBA also. Feel free to give out my email address (russlee@pacbell.net) to club members that would like to send a note.

Email The Web Team to share your memories and we will do our best to pass them along to the family. If you would like them posted on this page, then let us know that too.