George Adrian Kromhout

December 16, 1917 - December 8, 2018

George Adrian Kromhout died peacefully at his Hillsborough home in the early hours of Saturday, December 8, 2018, eight days shy of 101 years of age. He was gifted with great intelligence, creativity, an artistic eye, intellectual curiosity, and a love of learning that enriched his entire life. George was born on December 16, 1917, in New York State, and grew up in Elgin, Illinois with his parents Sarah and Andrew Kromhout, and his younger brother Robert (Bob).

In high school, in addition to excelling academically, George played clarinet in a National Championship quartet and played on the football team. He entered the University of Chicago in 1936 on a full scholarship, where he joined the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. After two years, he transferred to Bridgewater College, a small Church of the Brethren school in Virginia, where he met his future wife, Thelma, on the day of his arrival. While a student there, he had a job tutoring six Cuban students and was the lab assistant to a favorite professor of Biology. He graduated in June 1940 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In September 1940, George entered the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, earning his Masters in Invertebrate Zoology. He became a Biology Instructor at Gettysburg College, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in September 1941, spending a year teaching there. George married the love of his life, Thelma, in December 1941. In September 1942, George was drafted into the U.S.. Army, stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, working in a warehouse as a non-combatant. He was accepted into the Army Specialized Training Program, for which he qualified in both the German language and medicine. He was reassigned to the Medical Lab located at Walter Reid Medical Center, where he worked in a research lab developing vaccines for various forms of typhus fever. His work there paved the way for his entry into medicine. In September 1944, George was honorably discharged to attend Johns Hopkins University Medical School. After earning his Doctorate in Medicine, he stayed at Johns Hopkins for a year of residency in Internal Medicine, during which time he was asked to go to Salt Lake City to help develop the University of Utah Medical School. In 1949, George became Chief Resident and a member of the faculty at the University of Utah Medical School in Medicine and Psychiatry. In 1952, he joined the newly established Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in San Francisco. He specialized in diabetes treatment in the Department of Internal Medicine and became Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Retiring in 1982, George enjoyed many years of playing tennis, writing poetry, learning to play piano, reading and thinking at his desk. He started a seminar group which met every other week for over thirty years to study and discuss his life-long interests: science, medicine and health policy, brain science, current events, philosophy and religion, and art. He enjoyed multiple cross-country trips with Thelma and European travel with Thelma, family, and friends.

Rich in family, George is survived by his beloved wife, Thelma, children Karen Kromhout, John Kromhout, Kathryn Fairchild and husband Roger, and Paul Kromhout and wife Laura, grandchildren Aaron Kromhout, Paige, Kelley, and LeeAnne Kromhout, Carty and Kyle Kromhout, and great-grandchildren Karlyn, Grant, and Pierson Kromhout, as well as nephews Kurt (Alison), Karl, and Kim Steiner (Catherine), BrIan (Cathy) and Ethan (Ann) Kromhout, and niece Sharon Schiro (Jerome).

The family wishes to acknowledge and thank his extraordinary caregiver, llo, as well as Mission Hospice for their support during the five and a half years of his confinement at home.

Family and friends are invited to a memorial service on Saturday, January 5, 2019, at 11:00 am at the Congregational Church of San Mateo at 225 Tilton Avenue, San Mateo.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Mission Hospice in George’s memory.

Friends and family may also view the online notice at www.tributes.com