LeRoy “Lee” Schiel (1974) Lee was installed into the Edison High School Hall of Fame for Tennis in 1974 because of a sweep on April 2, 1974, of the powerhouse Corona Del Mar High School’s tennis lineup not achieved by anyone else and not done since.  After graduation from Edison, he spent a year at Orange Coast College, then red-shirted before gaining a full scholarship to Chapman University to play tennis.

As a stand-out college tennis player in Southern California, Lee entered the professional tennis world as a Wimbledon qualifier in 1978, connecting him with celebrities, business leaders and medical professionals who would help drive his innovations in the years that followed.  He continued playing tennis in the U.S. and internationally, playing in and out of the top 100 internationally and ranked in the top 10 in Southern California while continuing his studies at Chapman. After graduating from Chapman with a BA in Business and Economics in 1980, Lee became their Head Tennis Coach for two seasons.

After leaving his coaching position at Chapman, he continued his work as a master craftsman and woodworker, Lee was also a General Contractor in Orange and LA counties, working on spec homes, commercial buildings which included a project of the first prototype Taco Bell, and many medical installations.  He continued to play tennis professionally until 1983 when he was accepted into the Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in Quantico, VA with aviation contract. After leaving the Marine Corps, Lee continued to nurture his construction business in both California and South Carolina, amassing a fortune to allow his retirement at age 31.

In 1992 Lee was misdiagnosed with cancer until it was discovered to be a parasite.  While Lee did recover, the parasite had taken a toll on his body, making work and physical labor difficult.  During his recovery, Lee ran an art gallery in Newport Beach.

In 1997, a fellow tennis acquaintance and owner of a Laguna Beach art gallery brought him several fossilized dinosaur eggs and asked him if he could validate the integrity of the fossils.  With help from his radiologist friends at Methodist Hospital, he was able to reveal the dinosaur embryos within the fossilized matrix with visible cranium, eye sockets, spine and legs. Lee held a press conference at Chapman on September 11, 1997, where his discovery was called one of the greatest discoveries in paleontology in the 20^th century.  One of the journalists that covered the story coined a new term “Paleontographer”. The discovery also led to a nomination for the Nobel Prize in Science.

Lee soon partnered with Silicon Graphics to study the pixel level details of the scanner imagery databases.  He found that layered successive scans provided a vast volume of data sufficient to support 3D mapping and image display.  This led to his development of a software he calls ‘VOLUMAP’ for building an enhanced data structure to manage CT scan data, and ultimately MRI-based medical diagnostics. The new dataset enables detailed exploration of otherwise unobservable materials, such as fossils and rock, with zoom-in capabilities smaller than a millimeter and full 3D rotational image manipulation.

From 1997 until 2002, Lee worked with California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)’s Astrobiology Division’s The Center for Life Detection, to help develop the technologies that are being used today on the Mars rovers to examine rocks on Mars for evidence of traces of bacterium or other life.  His work with the Rovers has garnered him many accolades and established him as a forward-thinking and preeminent leader in the evolution of volumetric imaging.

He toured the country demonstrating and teaching students technology, science and medicine to rave reviews. One such event was at Edison, where he reunited with his science teachers and mentors including Gary Monji and Tim Mang. He worked with Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and Steve Ballmer along with Nobel prize laurates, governors and heads of state including Mexico’s President Vincente Fox.

His 3D rotational scan of a 14-day old mouse fetus is what sparked the interest of surgeons and oncologists in the medical community.  In 2002, Lee was asked to assist surgeons with vascular cranial mapping using his VOLUMAP software to successfully separate the two Marias, Guatemalan conjoined twin girls joined at the head at Mattel Children’s Hospital LA; both girls are still alive today. This led to another Nobel nomination.  He has collaborated and worked additional conjoined twin separation surgeries throughout the world.

Lee continued his work in the field of MRI diagnostic imaging, working with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) in collaboration with Doctors Roger De Filippo and Paul Kokorowski (Department of Pediatric Urology), and in cooperation with the Department of Radiology on a variety of pediatric MRI applications. His ultra-fast MRI techniques have been the major driving force in the formulation of original imaging protocols by Dr. De Filippo for urologic intervention through the Institute of Maternal and Fetal Health program at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA).   He is published in JAMA and several other medical journals for his work in the field of pediatric urology.

In 2019, while relocating to Texas, Lee was in a catastrophic truck accident on I-10 outside of Palm Springs, leaving him an as incomplete quadriplegic. Although he still faces many challenges, he has recovered his ability to stand and walk, and he is actively engaged in coaching tennis in the community in Georgetown TX where he and his wife Donna reside.

Lee is a true entrepreneur, having founded several companies relating to MRI diagnostics, industrial design, and modernized baseball bats for MLB. His latest design is the torpedo bat.  He continues to be an inspiration to others, and he is back to work pursuing all his endeavors.