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Although he barely topped 5 feet in height, diver Sammy Lee 鈥�43 was a giant:  The two-time Olympic gold medalist was the first person of color to be elected student body president at Franklin High School, the first Asian-American man to win an Olympic gold medal, and the first American platform diver to win gold medals in consecutive Olympics. As a coach, his athletes went on to win 10 Olympic gold medals.

鈥淒ad was bigger than life,鈥� Pamela Lee 鈥�77 says of Oxy鈥檚 greatest Olympic athlete, who died at age 96 on Dec. 2, 2016. 鈥淏ut our best memories are the simple ones: making root beer floats at home, going to his office where he always had a box of See鈥檚 candy in the drawer, or driving around in his 1964 Aston Martin.鈥�

It wasn鈥檛 what anyone would have predicted for the skinny kid born in Fresno of immigrant Korean parents, who operated a York Boulevard grocery store in Highland Park. Lee often told the story of his family鈥檚 neighbors who told them that they didn鈥檛 wants 鈥淐hinks鈥� or 鈥淛aps鈥� living next door, and how he was one of the 鈥渃olored鈥� children who swam in the public pool in Pasadena on Wednesdays鈥擨nternational Day, after which the pool was drained and refilled for the white children who used the pool the rest of the week.

A talent for somersaulting led him to diving; he was practicing in the Olympic pool near the Coliseum as a high school senior when he was spotted by 鈥淏ig鈥� Jim Ryan, a well-known coach who told Lee he would make him the world鈥檚 best diver or kill him in the process.

The 6'4", 275-lb. Ryan wanted Lee to go to UCLA, but Lee enrolled at Oxy, where his father had attended the old Occidental Academy and sister Elizabeth 鈥淒olly鈥� Rhee graduated in 1937. A chemistry major鈥攈e had promised his father he would become a doctor鈥擫ee won the 10-meter U.S. national champion颅ship in 1942. He also won the heart of Rosalind Wong, whom he met at Taylor Pool while giving a diving exhibition on his last day as a student at Oxy and subsequently married.

World War II forced the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympics, but Lee鈥攂y then an Army doctor鈥攚as ready for the 1948 Games in London, where he won the 10-meter gold and a bronze meal in the 3-meter springboard. He repeated as a gold medalist in platform at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, winning on his 32nd birthday. The following year, he became the first diver to win the Amateur Athletic Union鈥檚 Sullivan Award as America鈥檚 outstanding amateur athlete.

On his discharge from the Army in 1955, Lee made headlines again when Orange County real estate agents refused to sell him a home in a white neighborhood. (Among those who successfully intervened on his behalf was then-Vice President Richard Nixon.) He then turned to coaching, leading the American diving team at the 1960 Olympics and coaching gold medalists Pat McCormick (1952, 1956), Bob Webster (1960, 1964), and Greg Louganis (1984, 1988). 鈥淗e took a so-so high school diver and made me into an Olympic champion,鈥� Webster says of Lee. 鈥淗e made me believe in myself. That faith in me changed my life forever.鈥�

Lee鈥攚ho didn鈥檛 charge athletes for his coaching鈥攚as an icon of diving whose star never dimmed. 鈥淥f all my travels, the highlight was escorting Sam and Roz to the 2012 Olympics in London,鈥� says Tom Gompf, former president of U.S. Diving and chair of the FINA International Diving Committee. 鈥淚 never saw a man so loved and admired.鈥�