Stuart (Stu) Leeb
Stuart (Stu) Leeb passed away peacefully on January 25, 2017 at The Sequoias, Portola Valley, California. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio on October 26, 1928 and raised in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. He graduated from Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio before attending Amherst College in Massachusetts. After completing his undergraduate degree, Stu went on to study business at the Harvard Business School.
After graduation from business school, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he became involved in the real estate market. Stu started as a broker and became a developer in the 1960’s. He developed several research and development and office buildings in the Bay Area and Fresno. Stu will be remembered by many brokers as one of the last users of the slide rule in the real estate business and eventually succumbed to using a calculator, albeit reluctantly.
Stu was active in state and local Republican politics in the 1960’s and 1970’s. In 1961 he was elected vice-president of the Republican Alliance’s Peninsula division, and in 1963, elected president of the same division. He was a member and chairman of the San Mateo County Human Relations Commission, and a board member and past president of Cedars of Marin, a facility for the developmentally disabled. His youngest daughter, Betsy, who passed away last year, was a long-time resident of Cedars.
Stu enjoyed travel and flying small aircraft. He was an avid skier, loved swimming and cycling, and for a while, even considered himself a windsurfer. He loved jazz music and spent years trying to be a musician, be it on the piano, the saxophone, the guitar, the flute and even the harmonica, as many will remember. In his 40’s, he took up meditation, which helped transform him from a Type A to a Type B+, and to which he attributed his living a long, fulfilling life.
He was a long-time resident of Menlo Park, with homes in Moss Beach and Puerto Vallarta, and was a founding member and board member of the Biblioteca de Vallarta, the city library.
Stu will be remembered by many for his warmth, wit, optimistic outlook and generosity.
Stu is survived by his son Jon and daughter-in-law, Lisa of Sonoma, his daughter Carrie, his grandchildren Scott (Gina) Sans, Hillary (Ian) Mitchell, and Milo Leeb-Domina as well as his great-grandchildren Cole and Carter Sans.
A celebration of life to honor Stu will be held on Saturday, March 18th. For information, contact stu.leeb.family@gmail.com.
If you would like to remember Stu, consider purchasing a gift for yourself to keep in his memory or making a donation to Cedars of Marin, PO Box 947, Ross, California 94957.