LEE-Melvin Died March 11, 2009. Melvin Lee, scientist, professor, clinical nutritionist, researcher, world traveler and above all a grand husband, father, grandfather and brother, died on March 11, 2009 from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 83.

Mel marked many milestones in a life packed full of living.  He was born in New York on Jan 5, 1926, the younger of two sons of Herman Israel Lee and Rae (Panish), Mel graduated with bachelors and masters degrees in zoology at the University of California at Los Angles and he later got his PhD in nutrition at UC Berkeley. He married Beverly Mae Egan Low on Feb. 5, 1950 and they had four children, three boys and a girl. By 1965, when he took the family on sabbatical to Guatemala and Mexico, he was a assistant professor of preventative medicine at UC Berkeley.

In 1967 Mel was invited by the University of B.C. to take up positions as a professor of nutrition and director of the School of Home Economics. It came as many such schools across North America were modernizing into science-based learning institutes. In one of his first acts, Mel ushered in a graduate program of nutrition.  In 1973 he resigned as the director to take up teaching and research full-time.

Through his live, Mel sought to understand and then teach to his students the underlying issues of clinical nutrition. He authored of co-authored more than 60 research papers, documenting nutrition in the elderly and First Nations communities, studying in a  lab setting the correlation between alcohol and diabetes in pregnancy, the triggers for cleft palate and fetal alcohol syndrome and more.

He became a Canadian Citizen and tool frequent sabbaticals to study and teach at other institutions. At times he called home such cities as London, Tokyo, Valencia, Hiroshima, Mexico and Guatemala. Mel eschewed religion in favor of science but was a firm believer that anyone who had a belief had a right to it.

Mel retired from UBC as professor emeritus in 1996. He and Beverly moved back to Japan were he taught nutrition at Hiroshima Jogakuin University. They finally retired to Vancouver in 2001.

Mel is survived by Beverly and children David (Roxanne), Janice Lee-Thiem (Jack), Jeffery (Amanda), Roland (Todd), grandchildren David, Mark (Lynne), Sharon and Michael; Brother Norman (Marjory) and nieces, nephews and an extended family in Canada and the U.S.

The Lee family wishes to thank the incredible staff at VGH’s Palliative Care Unit and Nurse Marie on the 11th floor ACE unit, as well at the 4th floor staff of UBC’s Purdy Extended Care Unit.

A celebration of Mel’s life will be held on Sunday, March 22 at 1 p.m. at the UBC Botanical Garden, 6804 SW Marine DR., Vancouver. IN lieu of flowers donations to the VGH Palliative Care Unit and the ASK Arbutus Shaughnessy Friendship Society is greatly appreciated.