Edwin Bryce Lee, 85

Edwin Bryce Lee, born Feb. 18, 1923, passed from life Aug. 8, 2008, at 85 years of age. The son of Edwin Samuel Lee and Ella Augusta Wegner Lee, Ed was a Montana man through and through - he was born in Whitefish and attended Flathead High School. He grew up in Essex and Kalispell, and lived on the Monterey Peninsula since 1959.

After graduating from Flathead County High School, Bryce (as he was then called) enrolled at Montana State University, but interrupted his studies at the beginning of his sophomore year to enlist in the U.S. 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, during one of which, damaged by Axis anti-aircraft fire, he guided his pilot to a remote island in the Adriatic for an emergency landing. From his journal, we learned that he fully understood the meaning of "coming in on a wing and a prayer."

After his honorable discharge, he returned to the United States to complete his master's in physics at the University of Washington. While in Seattle, he met Jill Mitchell Wiley. She was living with her sister and her husband, and for once they approved. "Steady Eddie" they called him, and a short six months later, they were wed.

After the birth of their first child, Patricia, Ed accepted a position with Bell Labs and moved his family to New Jersey, where Bryce Jr., Mitch, and finally Jill were born. Ed continued his study of physics at Columbia University.

In 1959, they moved to the Monterey Peninsula, where he worked as a research and development director for TechOps, Laboratory for Electronics, and Data Dynamics. He changed directions in 1965, becoming an investment counselor, then joined McGraw-Hill in 1973 to develop standardized testing. During his retirement, he taught mathematics at Monterey Peninsula College and Hartnell College.

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 knows 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, including Jeffers and Shakespeare. One of his many gifts to his family was his love of words. Over the course of his life, Ed composed an impressive collection of poems reflecting his thoughts, aspirations and important life events.

A longtime resident of Carmel Valley and Carmel, Calif., Ed served as president of the Carmel Valley Property Association, president of Mid-Valley and Lower Valley Property Associations, director of the Monterey Peninsula Water Board Management District, and on the board of the Salvation Army.

He raised his children along the Carmel River and for nearly 50 years, worked very hard for a small dam on the river and continued to search for solutions to the peninsula's water problems. Ed frequently wrote to the editors of the local papers on topics ranging from water conservation to community and social ethics.

The Lee family had some wonderful trips on conveyances as varied as a faluka, freighters and a hot air balloon. Ed especially enjoyed a recent trip to Norway where he connected with long-lost cousins, one of whom presented him with a book written about our Leeboken family.

Ed is survived by Jill, his wife of 56 years; children, Patricia Schminke and Bob of Salt Lake City, Bryce Lee and Barbara of Cornwall, N.Y., Mitch Lee, residing in Potsdam, Germany, and Jill Lee and Malcolm of Menlo Park, Calif.; grandchildren, Bryce and Helen Lee, and Dwight, and 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 cousins-in-law, Closey and Whit Dickey, Terry Phillips, Don Faulkner and Martha Faulkner.

He is predeceased by his brother, Alton Lee; and sister, Irma "Lee" Chambers.

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 at 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30, at Church in the Forest in Pebble Beach, Calif.