Wayland Lee

Wayland Lee, age 62, passed away on Saturday, April 12, 2025.  He was diagnosed with cancer and fought long and hard in his last few months because he truly loved his life.

Wayland is survived by his wife, Mary Ann Paras-Lee, his children, Lauren Aubrey Lee, and Harrison Landan Lee, his parents, Wai Jing (Janet) and Richard Lee, and his sister, Anna Hill.

Wayland was born on September 6, 1962, in San Francisco, California.  He was the eldest child.  His father worked as a baker at Eastern Bakery and his mother worked at Bank of America.  He enjoyed sharing stories of his fun childhood in Chinatown, playing on the hills, going to Johnny’s store to get a snack and he always talked about the nostalgic candy. He graduated from John O’Connell high school and completed his Associate’s degree in electronics at Cogswell College. During his sophomore year in high school, he had a summer job at the San Bruno Naval Base where he met his future wife, Mary Ann, who  also worked there for the summer.  After that summer, the two did not reconnect until they were Freshmen in college. 

In 1983 he went on a 6-week trip to Hawaii with Mary Ann and he completely fell in love with the islands.  He met Mary Ann’s many relatives and discovered things like malasadas, plate lunch and sashimi.  In 1986 they went back to Hawaii and got married in Honolulu. When they came back to San Francisco, they also had a Chinese wedding banquet. 

While in college Wayland worked part-time as a security guard for Twilight Securities and Macys in San Francisco.  After graduation he worked as a field service technician for Sony and Syntrex, eventually landing a job as a Senior Computer Technician for United Airlines in 1990.  He was briefly laid off from United Airlines and worked as a Field Service Engineer for General Electric.  Then in 1995, he was recalled back to United Airlines.  Working for the Airlines and with no kids yet, gave the couple opportunities to travel. They traveled to Hawaii a countless number of times, Europe, and Australia.  They also traveled with his parents and Uncle and Aunt to Europe, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.  When they were in London or in Hong Kong, Wayland managed to find little hobby shops that carried military miniatures and aircraft models.  He was passionate about these collections. 

In 1990 they bought their first home at Crown Colony in Daly City.  It was plenty of room to house their collection of Wayland’s miniatures and Mary Ann’s porcelain and Barbie dolls and they lived with their beloved Pekingese Gizmo.  This was also the start of hosting family get togethers and eventually family Thanksgiving and Christmas parties.

In 1995, Lauren was born and Wayland quickly and successfully got them a house.  Lauren was born in July and they moved into their new home in August.  They thought they would have just one kid, but after giving away all of their baby stuff, Harrison came along in 2001.  With two kids, their house hosted birthday parties, Christmas, barbeques and any reason to get together.  Wayland also loved to take long drives.  He got himself a Suburban to fit as much family including Mom and Dad Lee, and traveled to Disneyland, Reno, and Tahoe a countless number of times.  One special driving trip he never forgot was when family from Hawaii visited and we had a caravan to Disneyland.  We stopped at a rest stop around 2 a.m. and ate adobo with rice. 

Life was amazing and he was so grateful that he lived near family, he had a backyard where he gardened, he had his large salt water reef tank, and had a spot in the house where he could quietly paint his miniatures.  In 2008 Tabby, our first cat, joined our family.  Tabby was just walking on the sidewalk when she decided to enter their house.  The family was on their way to Las Vegas so they left Tabby on the sidewalk.  When they returned five days later, Tabby was at their door and lived the rest of her life with the family.  This started the family’s love of cats. 

On March, 13, 2019, they had a house fire that displaced them for nearly a year.  Items were lost, the reef tank with fish that Wayland had for over 10 years did not survive.  Most importantly, the family was safe and Tabby was rescued.  Throughout that period Wayland spent his time working with the architect and the contractor to rebuild the house to his specifications.  He was good at saving money by purchasing out of box items and display models.  Sadly, Tabby passed away shortly after the family moved back into the house and today they have a total of 5 cats!  Wayland loved those cats and always had two or three attached to him.

In 2020, Wayland got a job with the City of Pacifica.   He would frequently share with Mary Ann how extremely fortunate he was to be surrounded with people who were so kind and felt like family. He would send Mary Ann a text or photo in the middle of the day of pets that would visit the office.  He would mention many times how this was the best job in the world.  On many occasions, he would get to work early to grab a coffee and spend a few minutes looking for dolphins and whales.  He even spent time in Pacific on the weekends to go fishing and crabbing.

Wayland had many hobbies and interest, but one that he wish would come more often is Christmas.  He loved listening to Christmas music several weeks before the holiday.  A Christmas Story was always playing as well as the multiple versions of Scrooge. 

The other joy in his life was going on cruises.  He loved that he could “catch a ship” in San Francisco and just go!  So he cruised multiple times to Alaska, Mexico, California Coast, and one big trip to Hawaii.  He was so happy to earn Elite status on the ship which meant you got fresh flowers, mini liquor bar, and most importantly free laundry!  He made many friends with passengers and crew because he enjoyed waking up in the early, quiet mornings and have coffee.  He would chat with the crew members and ask them about their life on and off the ship.  He also made it a point to buy Filipino baked goods before every cruise to give to the crew because he knew they were on the ships for 9 months at a time.   He took his last cruise in September of 2024 to Alaska.

This world has lost such an amazing person. He was generous with his time, and if you met him, he would be genuinely look out for you. Wayland was always supportive, reliable, funny, willing to lend a hand, and he would easily become your good friend. Not only was he kind, but he spread kindness.  How fortunate we are to have known Wayland in our lifetime.