|  George C. Lin, San Diego APA Film festival director, producer, community volunteer, arts advocate, scientist, son, brother, and most of all, dear and cherished friend to many, passed away Tuesday, October 14, 2008, at the age of 37. George had a remarkably varied career, having worked early on as a microbiologist, scientific researcher and a program manager for the National Institute of Justice in Washington, DC and in Chicago, and as a forensic scientist at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and DNA Identification Laboratory in Rockville, MD. At 18 years old, George was diagnosed with pheochromocytoma, a rare and debilitating disease that continuously challenged him throughout his life. Yet for the next two decades, George always fought the odds, exceeding his physicians' outlook of survival by a magnitude of order, and thereby going on to accomplish more than one could possibly imagine in a single lifetime. Notwithstanding the complications and symptoms of his rare and evolving cancer, George lived his life without the fear of physical and mental challenge, without the envy of good health, without the fear of death, and without letting on to most of those people around him that he suffered pain and the inconvenience of ongoing treatments and surgeries and the use of daily medication to help him cope with the symptoms of his disease. George lived his life to the very fullest until the end, and yet his drive, motivation, passion, kindness, humility, and mischievous humor was always endless and a source of inspiration to all. |
