Dorothy Grace Hsi

Dorothy Grace Lee Hsi was born in Montreal, Quebec Canada on August 25th, 1918. She passed away peacefully in the early morning of February 22nd, 2024, at the young age of 105.

She was fortunate to have lived a very full life, the last of her generation, and quite healthy up to the last few years. Always cheerful and happy with a positive outlook on life and the family. She loved her ice cream…

She is survived by her two sons, Victor, and Arthur. Her previous husband, William Arthur Hsi passed away in 2007 in Santa Rosa, California after a long and happy marriage of 59 years.

Dorothy was the second youngest girl and third youngest of 5 siblings, three girls (Margaret, Dorothy, and Norma) and two boys (Wilson and Douglas) to parents James Suey Lee and Avis Haw Lee (1st Chinese girl baby born in the North American continent East of the Rockies).

Dorothy had a talent for art at an early age, even before starting school. Art was her favorite subject after gym and music. After graduating from high school, she attended business college and studied art at the Valentine School of Art and Ecole Des Beaux Arts in Montreal. She had the opportunity to study under some

very legendary Chinese traditional and contemporary painters of the time.

After leaving Montreal, in 1946, she started her career in Advertising art in New York City where she met her future husband, William at Rockefeller’s International House. William was from a prominent banking family in Shanghai, China who traveled abroad as a student to study Political Science and Law at Columbia University.

They were married on Saturday afternoon, October 9th, 1948, in Montreal Canada.

William, Dorothy, and their first-born son Victor, initially lived in a small apartment in the busy city of New York. As their lives became more financially stable, they moved to Chappaqua on the outskirts of New York City where Arthur was born.

William soon landed an important job in Hong Kong, so the entire family moved there in 1960. They stayed there for about almost 5 years till August 1964 and as William was transitioning to another job, now in California USA, Dorothy took her two sons to the beautiful island of Oahu, in the Hawaiian Islands. They enjoyed life in the tropics for a little under 1 year while William was setting up the new household in Sleepy Hollow, Marin County,

just north of San Francisco. The family stayed there for over 11 years. During this time Dorothy did a lot of volunteer work with the Sleepy Hollow Presbyterian Church sharing her artistic talents as well as filling in as a substitute art teacher and French cooking instructor at the local Elementary school that Arthur attended.

William and Dorothy eventually moved to Geyserville, in Sonoma County, wine country, where they built their own custom home on a beautiful lakeside property hidden in the hills. Together, they also started a home construction company called Global Homes Inc. While in that business they built multiple homes in Sonoma County and a large condo complex in the San Francisco Bay Area. An elegant three-story open-design building with an inside atrium garden overlooking the magnificent San Francisco airport. An awesome eagle’s view to see planes take off and land day and night.

After retiring, Dorothy and William moved a few miles south to Santa Rosa where they could enjoy a quiet life closer to commercial businesses and not as remote as Geyserville. Dorothy was quite independent for over 11 years, only needing occasional help after William passed away in 2007. It was only the last few years of her

amazing life that she eventually passed peacefully in her sleep at a nursing home in Marin County California.

She will be missed by all she has touched. She leaves us with many fond memories and as a prolific natural artist, her art paintings and pastel drawings will endure as they are shared with friends, family, and the world.

Although she didn’t start to seriously create new artwork until later in her life, early 80’s, she was originally trained as an artist and eventually produced many marvelous works of art, from Chinese brush landscapes to still portraits and very realistic animals which won numerous 1st place awards at the Sonoma County Fair. Probably her best works are her animal pastels which seem to come to life.

If you haven’t had a chance, please read her book, a compilation of life stories “My Short Stories” for a closeup view into her fabulous and adventurous life…

I know we do not say this enough, but we love you and will miss you until we see each other again in Heaven. I know you are saving a spot for us…

Victor and Arthur

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