Seal Beach : Former Police Chief Lee Case Dies at 67

Lee Case, Seal Beach chief of police during much of the turbulent 1960s and mayor of Cathedral City since last year, died New Year’s Eve at age 67.

Case, who had suffered a heart attack four days earlier, had a history of heart problems, and had undergone triple bypass surgery shortly after leaving Seal Beach in 1971. He died at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage.

A native of Nebraska, Case attended USC and was a member of the U.S. Olympic water polo team in the London Games of 1948. In 1975 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Water Polo in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and last fall was among former Olympic athletes honored for three days by USC at the Coliseum.

During World War II, Case served as a naval officer on a destroyer in the South Pacific.

Case’s career in law enforcement spanned 33 years, 24 of which were with the Los Angeles Police Department, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant and commanded the Harbor Division.

From there, he became chief of the Seal Beach Police Department, a position he held for nine years.

Seal Beach Police Sgt. John Wachtman, whom Case hired in 1969, remembered his former chief as “a very popular guy and an able administrator. He took an individual interest in everyone, regardless of rank. Chief Case was the kind of guy who would put his arm around you and ask about your family--a good, old-fashioned cop who came up in the old days when you went out there and got the job done.”

Case is survived by his wife, Geraldine; a daughter, Carol, of Santa Monica; and a sister, Zelda Sims, of Arcadia. Carol Case suffers from leukemia, and last year during the Olympic Torch run she carried the flame in the Palos Verdes Estates leg of the cross-country run. Her father was her sponsor.

Two memorial services are planned for Saturday, one at 9 a.m. in Cathedral City’s Calvary Chapel on Date Palm Boulevard and the second at 2 p.m. in the Grace Chapel at Inglewood Memorial Park.

Case’s body will be cremated and the ashes buried at the Inglewood park, which is situated at Manchester Boulevard and Prairie Avenue.

In lieu of flowers, the Case family asked that donations be made to the American Heart Assn. or the American Cancer Society.