Lee C. Kirchner

Lee was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. He graduated from Creighton University and raced cars while attending medical school at University of Nebraska. He hated snow and being cold. Lee was thrilled to move to Houston, Texas for his Fellowship in Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Lee met his wife, Loise, over a mutual patient in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Despite her throwing him out of the unit for being too loud, he continued to visit the unit, and her, often. It was not long before Lee was welcomed into Loise’s family and became the comic relief at family gatherings, and the ‘go to person’ for all things car related. Lee adored Loise’s son, Ben, whom he claimed as his own. Lee was so excited to welcome their two beautiful creations, Ava and Vicki (formerly known as Leo) into this world. He was a very proud Dad and often commented that he never dreamed he would have the privilege of being a father. Lee loved being an uncle to several nieces and nephews and found great joy in making them laugh. Lee was also delighted to become a grandfather to Ben and Breanna’s sweet babies, Collin and Kendall.

Lee had many passions, most notably his patients and cars. He loved his patients that he was a proud advocate for, his many cars, his enormous model car collection and loved sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of every car ever created. People would send a picture, or partial picture of a car, and he would spout off the year, make, model and often the VIN number. He always knew the interesting stories about unusual cars and their owners.

Dr. K was a wonderful physician who was adored by so many of his patients and their families. He adored each and every one of his “buddies” that he had the privilege of caring for. He took great pride in his ‘wall of fame’ with thousands of beautiful pictures of his beloved patients. He enjoyed reminiscing about his patients that practiced their jokes in anticipation of a Dr. K visit. He loved hearing the recited jokes that were meant to rival his lame ‘dad jokes’. Parents often commented on the sign that he had printed up and placed prominently in his office. It basically asked to be patient and kind to the staff, because he liked to talk a lot and there’s only one of him, and that it was not the staff’s fault that he was always behind. Lee truly missed the days of hanging out with his buddies, as he called his patients.

Lee was known for his wild set of acronyms that nobody but Lee knew. Everyone, including his esteemed doctors at Johns Hopkins and the NIH, were forced to use Google to figure out what all of his acronyms meant. He was also known for his show stopping one liners. Being a pulmonary physician made it all that more ironic that one of his favorite loves was a good cigar. He smoked almost daily, usually floating in his “office”, the hot tub. When anyone questioned this habit, he would answer, “What’s it gonna do, give me cancer?!” Lee loved signing emails and texts with FOF. He was certain that we are all given a set amount at birth, and you only have so many to give. He ran out long ago!

The family would like to thank Dr. Fuchs and the amazing team of clinicians and staff at Johns Hopkins Hospital who cared for him through his bone marrow transplant and the many difficult years after.

We will all miss his big grin and deep dimples, that amazing mind, as well as that shrewd sense of humor.

Family and friends will gather for a Memorial Service on Sunday, February 26th, 2023, at 1:00 PM at Porter Loring Mortuary North. A Celebration of Life will follow at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to ChildSafe (https://www.childsafe-sa.org/) or Camp Kesem (https://www.kesem.org/).