Dr. Dana Thorangkul Lee

Poet and author Maya Angelou declared: “Life loves the person who dares to live it.” Compassionate and hardworking, Dana Lee was fearless in allowing life’s lessons to inform her future, then quietly sharing her hard-won wisdom with those she loved most. This generosity of spirit adorned her legacy, and she passed away Sunday, March 13, 2016, at age 83.

The youngest of eleven children, Dana was born to a Danish father and a Thai mother. (Her sole surviving sister is Thora Purdom of Salinas, CA.) Dana and her siblings were raised in both Chang Mai and Chang Rai, Thailand, under the Japanese occupation in World War II, while her father, Bertel Thorvaldsen (who altered “Thorvaldsen” to a more Thai-sounding “Thorangkul”) worked as a colonel in the Thai Border Police. In Dana’s early years, her family owned a large tobacco plantation on which rode elephants, played with her brothers, and even enjoyed some occasional tiger hunting. But the tone of her life changed when bombing raids began near their home, and eventually, those same brothers would end up listening to underground radio and passing sensitive information along to Allied forces. (Once, they barely avoided tragedy as they arrived at a railroad station in the midst of a bombing raid.) Although she originally attended Catholic school—jumping in ditches along the way to avoid fallout from bombs—Dana was later schooled in the jungle near their home (by her sister) after the risk of injury was deemed too great for her to walk to school. Still, she progressed, eventually excelling in both academics and athletics—she was even selected to compete in the shot-put event for the Asian Olympics but decided to pursue higher education in the United States instead.

After three years of studying at nearby Kasetsart University, Dana received a royal scholarship from the King of Thailand—the first woman so honored—then immigrated to the United States as a Utah State University student of Nutrition. She later received her Masters and Doctorate degrees in Nutritional Biochemistry from Cornell University. During her summers away from grad school, Dana worked as a Thai Instructor for the Army’s premiere language school—now the Defense Language Institute—at the Presidio of Monterey, CA; later, she also studied the effects of nutrition in military veterans for the US Armed Services. In the winter of 1960, Dana (a Ph.D. student, at the time) was sitting alone in a cafeteria at Cornell when a young man—wearing an ugly raincoat—invited himself to sit with her. It was David Morris Lee, a new Physics instructor at Cornell, who was already smitten with her. The couple married on September 7, 1960, in New York City, then honeymooned on Martha’s Vineyard in the midst of Hurricane Donna.

Over time, the Lees would have two sons: Eric Bertel Lee (and wife Lori) and James Marvin Lee (and wife Caroline). When their boys were young, Dana would take them to visit David in his lab, and then laugh as he poured liquid nitrogen on the polished floor while the boys chased the bubbles around. She also tagged along as David taught their sons his passion for rock climbing on various family trips. Additionally, Dana became an expert seamstress (joining the Thimble Club—a ladies’ sewing circle), a formidable cook and a collector of Oriental rugs with an eye for style and design that featured her favorite color: red. Ultimately, Dana’s overriding passion was found in supporting her family, and her proudest moment came in 1996, as she accompanied her husband to Stockholm where he accepted a Nobel Prize in Physics (and they subsequently met the King of Sweden).

Dana taught her sons: “Be kind to others, and always be good to those less-fortunate.” This lesson, along with other wisdom Dana shared, continues to enrich her family’s life together as they survive her now, including her husband, David, their two sons and daughters-in-law, and their four grandchildren: Christina A. Lee, Victoria R. Lee, Daniel Lee and Andrew Lee.

The Life Celebration for Dana will be held at The Hilton Hotel & Conference Center at 5 PM on Wednesday, March 30, 2016, in College Station, Texas and also in Ithaca, New York, on Saturday May 7, 2016 at Anabel Taylor Chapel on the Cornell University Campus at 2 PM.

-- Hillier Funeral Home Bryan, TX 77802

Dana T. Lee, 83, of Ithaca, NY and Bryan, TX passed away suddenly but peacefully after a brief illness on March 13, 2016 at her home in Bryan. Dana was born in Chiang Rai, Thailand and attended Catholic School in Chiang Mai, Thailand later attending Kasetart University and being crowned shot put champion of Thailand. She accepted a Royal Scholarship from the King of Thailand and came to the United States where she received her Bachelor's Degree from Utah State University and her Master's and Doctorate (Ph.d) in Nutrition and Biochemistry from Cornell University. She was later employed by Cornell as a researcher in Nutrition. She also taught Thai at the U.S. Army Language School at the Presidio of Monterey. Dana is survived by her husband, David M. Lee; her two sons, Eric (Lori) and Jim (Caroline) and four grandchildren, Christina, Victoria, Daniel and Andrew. The Life Celebration for Dana will be held at The Hilton Hotel & Conference Center at 5 PM on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 in College Station, Texas and in Ithaca, NY, Saturday, May 7, 2016 at Anabel Taylor Chapel on the Cornell University Campus at 2 PM. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages donations to the .
Published in Ithaca Journal on Mar. 29, 2016