Dr. Lee Ballance

1944 - 2025

Dr. Lee Ballance
02/02/1944 - 06/01/2025
A long-time resident of Berkeley, Dr. Lee Ballance died on June 1, 2025 with family and close friends at his side.
Lee spent his entire life as a healer and caregiver, concerned not just about the next patient in the clinic, but about the health of the larger community and the world. He was a physician, teacher, political activist, and climate advocate, as well as a devoted husband, father, and grandfather. He is remembered by those who loved him as a birder, SCUBA enthusiast, lover of jazz, long-distance bicyclist, river-rafter, practicing Buddhist, meticulous journaler, lover of poetry, voracious reader, and an irrepressible raconteur.
Lee was born in Chicago on February 2, 1944, the oldest of four children of Lewis and Dr. Mildred (Herkner) Ballance. His mother was one of the first women to graduate from medical school at the University of Michigan. He was raised in Traverse City, MI and studied at Michigan State University, where he was active on the college alternative newspaper. He graduated from medical school at the University of Chicago, where he was active with the Medical Committee for Human Rights. As a member of the Chicago Student Health Project, he worked on community-based health projects and provided medical assistance in 1968 at the numerous political demonstrations in Chicago that year. Later, as a young internal medicine resident at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx, Lee joined a community of other healthcare providers who were concerned about the social determinants of health and disease as well as the more traditional biologic understanding of illness. They recognized that poverty, racism, maldistribution of resources, climate change, and injustice were as worthy of their attention as anatomy and physiology.
After working in community-based primary care in western Massachusetts Lee moved to Berkeley (then more recently to Kensington) where he lived until his death. He initially worked as an Emergency Department physician in Salinas, while also pursuing his interest in alternative/complementary healing and martial arts, earning a black belt in aikido. He gained board certification in emergency medicine while on staff at Berkeley's former Herrick Hospital. He later joined the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, ultimately specializing in musculo-skeletal medicine at Kaiser Vallejo, where he served as Chief of Continuing Medical Education and Director of the hospital's acupuncture clinic. He also served for many years on the Northern California Kaiser Regional Task Force on Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
Early in his career, Lee's concern about the health of the broader human community led him to anti-nuclear activities with Physicians for Social Responsibility, and to postretirement work as a volunteer with Citizens Climate Lobby's local Alameda Chapter, as well as with organization's national Health Action Team. In both capacities he worked to raise awareness of the links between human health and out-of-control climate change, and tirelessly lobbied the US Congress to take major action to reduce carbon pollution.
He was described by his colleagues at CCL as "a man of deep intelligence and kindness."
Lee enjoyed teaching young medical students at UCSF for many years through his long-time collaboration with Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen and the Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness. He also served as adjunct faculty at the Touro University School of Osteopathic Medicine.
Many of his friends and colleagues would describe Lee as one of the kindest, smartest, most generous and engaged persons they ever knew. He did The New York Times crossword daily, maintained a genre-spanning 9,600-track Spotify playlist, and each day perfected his calling as an amateur chef of many different cuisines.
Lee lived life to the fullest. He left too soon, after an unexpected respiratory illness, following a trip to the ancient capitals of Japan. He is survived by his wife and partner of over 41 years, Mary Selkirk, daughter Zoe Ballance (Alejandro Schain), two beloved grandsons, Leonardo and Maximo Schain, brother Robert Ballance (Kathy Blake) and many devoted friends and extended family.
To honor his life, his family asks that you consider making a contribution in his name to the Environmental Voter Project, the Misool Foundation, or Everyday Zen.
A celebration in memory of Lee will take place in Berkeley in September.
For details about the upcoming event, write to CeremonyForLee@gmail.com