Thomas K. Stern, M.D., 71 years, died unexpectedly on July 15, 2017.  The incident preceding Tom’s death, which led to a catastrophic brain bleed, occurred the day before, on Tom and his beloved wife’s 32nd wedding anniversary.  As the Lord’s Prayer was being said, Tom took his final breath.  Tom died in the presence of his wife Yolanda, his son Tom, daughter in law Kenia and his two daughters Jordan and Lindsey. 

Dr. Stern was born October 4th, 1945 in Clinton, Minnesota.  He was the son of Richard O. Stern and Genevieve J. (Dalseth) Stern and oldest brother of Mark Stern, Rick Stern and Robin Jarvis.  The son of a U.S. Navy Corpsman, Tom lived all across the United States, eventually arriving in the Central Valley of California.  He worked as a newspaper boy during the school year and during the summers he would pick fruit with the migrant farmworkers.  A fall in a lake while still a boy caused Tom to learn to swim very quickly.  Swimming won him a scholarship to Stanford University where he joined Chi Psi Fraternity and graduated with a degree in Psychology, Class of 1967.

While in college, Tom worked nights as a brakeman for the Southern Pacific Railroad.  After Stanford, he went on to study medicine at The University of British Colombia, Faculty of Medicine, Class of 1972.  Tom took his medical degree and moved to Berkeley, California, where he opened Berkeley Family Practice Medical Group; which served more than 50,000 patients over 30 years; some of those patients he was still serving at his concierge medical practice at the time of his death.  Associating himself with the Interplast organization, he provided reconstructive surgery to hundreds of needy children in Southeast Asia.  Upon his wife Yolanda’s encouragement, he formed his own NGO:  One World Institute (OWI).  OWI focused on provision of medical assistance, disaster relief, and economic support to those in need.   Tom furthered his geo-political focus while serving as Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institute, Stanford University, and Fellow at the Potomac Foundation.  In 2011, Tom was honored to be awarded the Gusi Peace Prize for his work In Service of Humanity. 
 

Yet, after all of his accomplishments, Tom was still always so unsatisfied with his music CD sales; which are of course still available on Amazon for sale as well as all seven of his published Action/Adventure/Romance novels.  In lieu of flowers, please go online to Amazon and purchase one of his music CDs or novels ... it would make him so happy. Proceeds will go to his Non Profit, OWI.

Tom is survived by:  Wife, Yolanda O. Stern of Berkeley; Daughter, Jordan Adair Stephens and her husband, William Bradford Stephens of San Francisco; Daughter, Lindsey Gavarnie-Stern Beallo and her husband Jack Beallo of Oakland; Son, Thomas M. Ortega-Stern and his wife Kenia Duarte Stern of Berkeley; Stepdaughter, Marjorie Yokota.  He’s also survived by his deeply loved grandchildren, Scarlett Adair Stephens, Vanessa Adair Stephens of San Francisco, Jesse Robert Wade Beallo, and Aurora Nadine Fern Beallo of Oakland.  Tom is survived as well by his 95-year-old beloved mother, Genevieve Dalseth Stern and all of his adored siblings.

The Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, August 5th, 2017 at 10:00am in St. Dominic’s Catholic Church, 2390 Bush Street, San Francisco followed by interment at Mountain View Cemetery, 5000 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland.  There will be a reception immediately following the burial at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley.

GENEROUS AND BRAVE MEN LEAD THE BEST LIVES. THEY HAVE FEW REGRETS.

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