Kinman Gong

Kinman Gong, M.D.

Kinman Gong passed away peacefully on Thursday, October 19, 2023 in Walnut Creek.  He was born in Stockton, California on September 20, 1929 to the late Gong Kin and Ngai Shee Soo Lan.  He was one of seven children and attended Hazelton Grammar School, Edison High School and graduated from Stockton High School.  When not in school or working in the family’s market, he was active in the Mencius Hi-Y Club of the Chinese Christian Center where he made many friends and won the State Championship in the YMCA Church basketball league with a perfect undefeated season in 1946.  He attended University of California at Berkeley before being admitted to the University of California at San Francisco for medical school after only his junior year, graduating in 1955 with his medical degree.  

On February 15, 1957 Kinman was drafted to serve in the United States Army as a General Medical Officer.  Upon finishing officer’s training, he was stationed in Augsburg, Germany with the rank of Captain.  It was there that he earned a paratrooper status with multiple parachute jumps with the 101st Airborne Division.  After his honorable discharge in 1960, Kinman spent 3 years of surgical residency at Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii.  He was then accepted by the prestigious Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York for a residency in plastic surgery.  Following his plastic surgery residency, Kinman moved back to California where he began a fulfilling and successful medical practice in Sacramento.  He became a partner of Sacramento Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery until his retirement.

Mutual friends introduced him to Jeannette Lee of Oakland and after a whirlwind courtship they were then married. Kinman and Jeannette were together for over 50 years until her passing in early 2022.  They both enjoyed traveling the world with friends and family having visited every continent except perhaps Antarctica.  Besides traveling, they also enjoyed tennis, golf, fine dining and nurturing close relationships with their family and extended family as well.

He is survived by his son Michael (Barbara), daughter Celeste and granddaughter Erinn.  He leaves behind a younger brother George and numerous nieces and nephews.