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Richard (Dick) Lee, M.D., dies at 85

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. 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 is a retired professor of medicine and family medicine at the University of Southern California; Philip R. Lee of Palo Alto, former head of the Institute for Health Policy Research at UCSF, served in the administrations of Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton, 30 years apart; Hewlett Lee of Portola Valley, a retired surgeon and former executive director of the Clinic. 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.

He also is survived by numerous other members of the Lee family, which made its mark on the Palo Alto region since 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 that was made worse in later life from vehicle accidents and a hip replacement. He attended one of the first classes of Peninsula School in Menlo Park -- his mother, Dorothy Lee, who died in 1972 at 78, was a close friend of Josephine Duveneck, who with her husband, Frank, were founders of the school. Russel Lee died in 1982.

Dick Lee also narrowly escaped arrest when he and friends took small watertight dump truck that they used as a portable swimming pool when working on the Lee "ranch" -- now Palo Alto's Foothills Park -- and drove down University Avenue trying to slosh water out on pedestrians.

"He was given a stern lecture by police -- he always seemed to know just how far he could push it without getting into serious trouble," Rich Lee recalled of the family stories.

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.

His love of speed began as a youth, when he took up racing his Indian motorcycle around a dirt track around the Stanford Stadium -- and once got caught riding it across the Stanford Golf Course.

He also was an avid flyer, as were his father and sister, flying his father's Air Coupe from the Palo Alto Airport, and serving as a flight surgeon in World War II, flying whenever possible from Clark Field in the Philippines to transport patients or just hitch a ride.

After two unsuccessful early marriages, he married Louise Tower, a nurse he met at Hamilton Air Base, and he and "Lou" had a close companionship -- including her taking an interest in auto racing -- 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. The girls also served as babysitters for the Lee children, Rich recalled: "We had a room for them and they were part of our family."

Rich said his father "was loved by his patients, and he would take Medicare patients" when other physicians wouldn't due to low reimbursement rates. "He had a very open heart. He genuinely loved his patients -- he really did -- and they loved him back.

"And he loved his wife. Lou was the co-chief, and they were together at all the races and all the conferences," as well has hosting parties for numerous fellow racers.

After briefly owning a Jaguar racing car, Dick Lee bought his first Porsche in 1957 -- its engine is still on the workbench of a special garage he built in 1958 when Russel Lee created a family compound off Los Trancos Road. The garage had a mechanic's "grease pit" in the floor and radiant heating embedded in the concrete.

A nephew, Geoff Paulsen, recalled a rumor of a Porsche with no license plates occasionally speeding along Los Trancos Road -- a late-night road test -- and once reaching 80 miles per hour at the bridge at Los Trancos Creek.

Dick Lee 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.

His interest in racing safety included becoming known as the first driver to wear a safety harness, buying surplus Air Force shoulder harnesses and adapting them to fit cars.

"It was the first of many efforts to improve safety for drivers and crews -- and spectators," Rich said, adding that his father won numerous national awards for his efforts to improve safety and professionalism.

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."

Jay Thorwaldson is editor of the Weekly. He can be e-mailed at jthorwaldson@paweekly.com.