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Edwin Lee

| August 21, 2008 11:00 PM

Edwin Bryce Lee, passed from life on Aug. 8, 2008 at the age of 85.

He was born in Whitefish on Feb. 18, 1923, the son of Edwin Samuel Lee and Ella Augusta Wegner Lee. He was a Montana man through and through. He attended Flathead High School and grew up in Essex and Kalispell and lived on the Monterey Peninsula since 1959.

After graduating from high school, Bryce (as he was then called) enrolled at Montana State, but interrupted his studies at the beginning of his sophomore year to enlist in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He was the lead navigator of a B-17 squadron, stationed in Italy, and flew more than 50 missions.

Following his honorable discharge, he returned to the U.S. to complete his master's in physics at the University of Washington. While in Seattle, he met Jill Mitchell Wiley, and a short six months later, they were married.

Throughout his life, Ed was an accomplished physicist, poet, philosopher, inventor, humorist and active citizen. It hardly goes without saying, of course, a dry-fly fisherman who could read the river and know where the worthy fish lay. He drew much of his inspiration from his love of the Montana mountains, streams and star-filled skies of his youth.

Ed's encyclopedic ability to recite poetry included passages from British and American modern and classical poets. Over the course of his life, he composed an impressive collection of poems reflecting his thoughts, aspirations and important life events.

He was preceded in death by his brother Alton Lee and sister Irma "Lee" Chambers.

Ed is survived by Jill, his wife of 56 years; children Patricia Schminke and husband Bob, of Salt Lake City, Utah, Bryce Lee and wife Barbara, of Cornwall, N.Y., Mitch Lee, of Potsdam, Germany, and Jill Lee and husband Malcolm, of Menlo Park, Calif.; grandchildren Bryce and Helen Lee and Dwight, Emily and Katherine Hobbs; sister Carole Lee Hall, of Salado, Texas; nieces and nephews Gary and Jennifer Lee, Sharon O'Brien, Jennie Tevlin, James Chambers, Diane Tucker and Nancy Lange; and favorite cousin-in-laws Closey and Whit Dickey, Terry Phillips, Don Faulkner and Martha Faulkner.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Carmel Foundation, P.O. Box 1050, Carmel, CA 93921; Harrison Memorial Library, P.O. Box 800, Carmel, CA 93921; or Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, P.O. Box HH, Monterey, CA 93940.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008, at Church in the Forest, Pebble Beach, Calif., at 3 p.m.