In Memory of George Lin

By Lee Ann Kim

Tribute to George on the closing night of SDAFF 2008

It is with deepest sadness to announce that our beloved friend and festival programmer, George C. Lin, passed away at 3:30 PM on Tuesday, October 14, 2008. His father, Phillip and his neighbor Bobby were with him when he died at the Carmel Mountain Rehabilitation Center.

The public is invited to his memorial on Saturday, October 25 at 2 PM, located at his family's home at 7940 Rufus Court, San Diego, CA, 92129

SDAFF Artistic Programmer Sam Chen and George

George joined the San Diego Asian Film Foundation in 2003 as the Associate Festival Director, after having founded the DC APA Film festival in 2000, the same year the San Diego Asian Film Festival began. Everyone loved George for his quirky personality, charm, passion to help artists and students, his genuine love for film, willingness to serve, work ethic, and ability to bring people together. He cherished relationships, loved to talk until the wee hours of the night, and always made me laugh. This is how I remember him.

I learned of his passing during our film festival, in the midst of introducing our Reel in the Vote film program, which he helped create. Then immediately after introducing that program, I ran across the hallway to introduce another film, "Always: Sunset on Third Street," which he also brought to our festival. I knew the timing was no coincidence, as I felt his presence and energy at the theater that night. I immediately ran upstairs to hide from everyone and wept for the next few hours trying to figure out how I would reveal this to our hard-working staff, who all love him so dearly. How could we go on without him?

Aya Ibarra and George

I took comfort knowing that George came to San Diego to do what he loved, which was serving the community and working in the arts. He established a wonderful circle of friends here, surfed from time-to-time, ate his way up and down Convoy Street, and also met the love of his life, Aya. Plus, he was instrumental in helping our Film Foundation grow from a small organization, to one that's serving more than 25,000 people a year. His footprint is all over everything we do - from our educational programs, to establishing our very successful live music showcase called Blowfish, overseeing our internship program, organizing our annual trip to Sundance, recruiting volunteers, and selecting our films. He was also our accidental techie and a hard-core preacher of Mac computers.

SDAFF Executive Director Lee Ann Kim, George, and Grace Lee

It was only a few years ago that I learned that George had been fighting a long battle against a rare form of cancer called pheochromocytoma. Despite his deteriorating health and suffering excruciating pain, he insisted that he continue working until the very end because, frankly, that's the kind of person he is. I'm so happy that he is now pain-free, and can enjoy the fruits of his legacy through us, the DC APA Film festival, and the many other projects he supported.

Selfishly, our festival staff has been in mourning and grieving our loss, but we also know that George lived beyond the expectations of all doctors and know he is pain-free now. We are grateful that we knew him for as long as we did, and that he brought us so much joy to our Foundation and to our community. Within a day of his passing, friends across the nation established a memorial to him on Facebook. (It's worth sifting through the photos to see him dressed up as a can of SPAM for Halloween).

George reminds all of us to live each moment to its fullest and never take anything for granted. He treated everyone with kindness and was always generous with his time, his talents, and his friendship. We will miss him dearly.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family requests that charitable donations be made to The George C. Lin Memorial Fund established by his family, which will provide grants to institutions that provide scholarships to students studying film, and for pheochromocytoma research and awareness. Please send check donations to:

The San Diego Foundation
c/o George C. Lin Memorial Fund
2508 Historic Decatur Rd. Ste. 200
San Diego, CA 92106