Two Cal students’ friendly rivalry led to success on campus — and support for it later in life
David Lieu ’75, M.B.A. ’99 learned a lot both in and out of the classroom at Berkeley, including one valuable lesson he still holds onto today.
“I learned that there will always be people who are smarter than you, and people who are not as smart as you,” says Lieu, a cytopathologist who lives and works in Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley. “No matter who they are and what their station is in life, we must remember we are all sailing on the same ship called life. We must respect each other and work together to improve all of us.”
Lieu, a generous donor who once served on the Cal Parents Board and now volunteers with the Cal Alumni Association, recalls a game-changing experience on campus with a friend and classmate, David Gee ’76, in which both students challenged each other academically, working together to achieve great results.
“We were both chemistry majors and unsure what to do with our lives,” Lieu recalls. “He was from Fresno and a first-generation college student. He was one of the smartest people I had ever met. We were in the same physics and biology classes, and we worked together on labs and problem sets. But we competed on exams. In a friendly competition, we always tried to outscore each other. We were interested in earning a grade of A+ and not merely an A.”
The two high-achieving scholars lost touch after graduation, when Lieu enrolled in medical school at UC Irvine and Gee headed to UCSF, eventually becoming a cardiologist. In fact, it was more than 30 years until the pair crossed paths at a Cal alumni event and reconnected — and renewed their competitive ways.
“But we were too old to compete for grades,” Lieu jokes.
Instead, the pair competed with each other through donations to Cal to help support their beloved alma mater. Lieu and Gee both made gifts to the College of Chemistry to remodel the undergraduate chemistry labs and bring the college’s 50-year-old labs up to state-of-the-art standards. In gratitude, the College of Chemistry named two seminar rooms for Lieu and Gee, respectively, in the chemistry library at Hildebrand Hall.
“The rooms are adjacent to each other,” Lieu says, “and symbolize our friendship.”
These days, when Lieu mentors new Cal undergraduates who are worried about the intense competition at Cal, he shares the story about Dr. Gee and himself, hoping to illustrate that a little rivalry can be a tremendous motivator to bring out the best in students. “This is what competition at Cal really means,” he says, “working together for the common good.”