Liesel Altman
Feb. 12, 1918-June 9, 2018
Portola Valley, California

Liesel (Lee) Altman, who lived in the Bay Area for nearly 60 years, died June 9, 2018. She was born Feb. 12, 1918 in Osnabruck, Germany, the fourth of five children. She left Germany at the age of 15 for Palestine; her parents managed to get all the children out of Germany and left themselves just before World War II. In Palestine, Lee attended an agricultural boarding school in Ben Shemen and later joined Kibbutz Hazorea.

In 1938, Lee returned to Europe to study in Basel, Switzerland to become a dietician. During World War II, she worked as a dietician at Hadassah Medical Center, located on Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem. Lee married Helmut Altman in 1946; he was a communications engineer who had served in the British Royal Air Force in Cairo, Egypt during the War.

In 1959, the Altmans moved to the United States with their two children, arriving first in San Francisco and later living in Palo Alto and Ladera. Helmut worked for many years as an engineer at Fairchild Semiconductor.

Lee learned to drive and studied to become a real estate broker, and worked in real estate for several decades. She loved art, music, theater and travel, and attended weekly current events classes at Avenidas for more than 20 years, including the week she died. Most of all, she enjoyed her family and many friends.

Lee's husband predeceased her. She is survived by her son, Joram (Barbara); her daughter, Maya, her two grandchildren, Elana (Matt) and Max (Nick), and her great grandson, Josiah. She also leaves behind an extended family in Israel.