Lance Raynor

Dr. Lance Raynor, a gifted psychotherapist and faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco died on Feb 23,2022. He was 77.

Lance was born March 21, 1944, in Portland Oregon to a single disabled mother struggling with poverty. Tenacity and natural intelligence established lifelong qualities of fierce independence, persistence, and laid the groundwork for his deep empathy for those struggling with emotional challenges.

Lance left home and school at 15, joined the Marines at 17, and was discharged just before the escalation of the Vietnam war. The Marines provided the opportunity for higher education with the GI bill. Lance obtained a Doctor of Mental Health degree at UCSF and had a successful private practice, was director of mental health services for an HMO and worked at UCSF Student Health and Counseling (SHCS) providing decades of service to the University.

As both a clinician and educator at Student Health Services, he was seen by students and colleagues as a role model. Students, psychiatry residents, staff, and faculty benefitted from his keen insights, direct manner, empathy, unwavering integrity, strong work ethic and wicked sense of humor. As a therapist armed with innate curiosity, he had a unique ability to make a quick but deep genuine connection. His wife and children benefitted from his deep love, loyalty, and emotional honesty. Lance always responded to queries about relationships with “find someone who is kind, has integrity and a sense of humor.”

Lance had a wide range of interests. He loved the thrill of going fast; was an avid skier and a hot shot on his BMW GS1200 motorcycle on which he traveled thousands of miles on the backroads of Western USA. He loved the outdoors but also clocked hundreds of miles walking the hills of San Francisco plugged into some book on history, biology, or science. He had a wide range of musical tastes from jazz, classical to bluegrass and country. He shared the sounds and pleasures of bluegrass and Americana with family and close friends with decades of summer treks to the Strawberry Music Festival.

He was a smooth dancer, spinning his wife with grace and style.

Lance was a humble man, drawing people to him with his quiet, kind curiosity and countless stories of incredible assortment of life adventures. Even as his debilitating disease progressed, he continued to push his limits to experience life and to pursue new adventures, zipping his wheelchair up and over San Francisco’s hilly streets.

The last few difficult months of his life gave opportunities for reflection of his life with friends and family. He left this life feeling he had gotten more out of life than he ever expected and repeatedly expressed “I am very lucky to have so much love”. He faced his death with openness, bravery, dignity, storytelling and a good laugh at life’s absurd twists.

Dr. Raynor is survived by his wife of 40 years, Susan Rosen, MD, his son and daughter-in-law Max and Hannah Raynor, daughter, Sophie Raynor, and sister Zoe Fleming and family as well as nieces, nephews, and countless friends, all of whom will miss him enormously. but have cherished memories of this extraordinary man.

A memorial service is planned for June 11th, 2022, at the Noe Valley Ministry. The family requests, for those who wish, to donate to the ALS Association in memory of Lance S Raynor.