In 1980 Dr. Hugo Zee, a Dutch immigrant with distinguished academic credentials from Kansas, came to Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute and quickly became a prized addition to its faculty.
A former institute director, Dr. Ralph Roughton of Atlanta, considered Dr. Zee an indispensable associate, a wise and steadying influence within the faculty and a dedicated caregiver for the patients in his private practice.
“As a teacher of young psychoanalysts, Hugo was himself a role model of the valuable lesson he instilled in others,” Dr. Roughton said. “That is to say, a psychoanalyst must be both a scientist and a humanitarian, committed to the search for new knowledge and to the ethical caretaking of those who seek his help.”
One of the psychoanalysts Dr. Zee trained, Dr. Salley Jessee of Atlanta, called him "a gentle, kind and personable man, beloved by the entire psychoanalytic community." And one of his colleagues, Dr. Sybil Ginsburg of Atlanta, added that she was impressed with Dr. Zee's patience and ability to win trust.
Dr. Hugo Jakob Zee, 81, died Aug. 24 at Hospice Atlanta of complications from injuries suffered in a fall. His memorial service is scheduled for 3 p.m., Oct. 7, at Heritage Sandy Springs. SouthCare Cremation & Funeral Society is in charge of arrangements.
As a boy in the Netherlands, he endured hunger and hardship during the Nazi occupation of his homeland from 1941 to 1945. Four years after the war, opportunities for advancement were still scarce, and so at age 19 he came to America to work on his uncle’s farm in Texas.
Once he mastered English, he embarked on a career as a healer, moving to Kansas, where he received encouragement from friends he made there. Eventually he earned an M.D. from the University of Kansas and a degree in psychiatry at the Menninger Institute in Topeka, where he also trained in psychoanalysis.
Dr. Zee never forgot the supportive people of Kansas, said Dr. Nora Dougherty, his wife and partner in their private practice. So, she said, in giving himself what he considered a birthday present last year, he followed their example, establishing a scholarship for medical students who are the first in their families to go to college.
Dr. Zee became a U.S. citizen in 1956, and for the rest of life, Dr. Dougherty said, he felt that he had settled in the promised land.
While in medical school, Dr. Zee married Mary Joan Weddendorf of Kansas City, Kan. The couple had three children, Dr. Wendell Zee of Wilson, N.C., Dr. Juliana Zee of North Easton, Mass., and Aaron Zee of Lilburn, all of whom survive him. After Mary Joan Zee’s death in 1972, Dr. Hugo Zee married Dr. Dougherty in 1974, and she and their daughter, Rosalind Zee of Atlanta, survive him.
Also surviving are three brothers, Dr. Paul Zee of Kennesaw, and Dr. Pieter Zee and Dr. Jan Zee, both of the Netherlands; a sister, Treintje Zee, also of the Netherlands, and six grandchildren.
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