Nicholas Grace: 'He Lived Life To The Fullest'

Before he retired from his Healdsburg medical practice about three years ago, Nicholas Grace kept a photo on his desk of his old friend and fellow Healdsburg physician Phil Lightfoot.

Lightfoot died in the 1970s when he and Grace crashed an airplane while trying to ski the plane down a mountain in New Zealand, said Edward Neal, Grace's next-door neighbor, former medical partner and friend for 40 years.

"He lived his life to the fullest," Neal said Friday. Neal was reacting to news that Grace, 77, had died Sunday, Oct. 2, due to liver cancer.

"I am shocked and actually quite saddened," said Neal,  who retired in 2004 from the Sutter Health-affiliated family medical practice at 717 Center St. Besides Neal and Grace, the late Clyde Wellock was also a doctor at the Healdburg family medical practice.

Ed Neal's son, Dr. Thomas Neal, who worked in partnership with his father for 15 years before Ed Neal retired, is still a physician at the medical office, which now includes two other doctors, family practitioner Dr. Ann Firgurski and cardiologist Dr. Gregory Hopkins.

When Grace retired from the same practice in about 2007, "the next day he left for Indonesia to go scuba diving," Ed Neal recalled. "I haven't seen much of him since."

According to an article in the Press Democrat, Grace was diagnosed with liver cancer only a month ago. At the time, he was training for a century bike ride in Lake County and had bought a ticket for Papua, New Guinea, Neal said.

"He was a good friend," Neal said. "We shared a lot over the years."

Grace was a year behind Neal at UCSF medical school, and the two men both had their family practice medical residencies at the former Sonoma County Hospital in Santa Rosa, now a Sutter Health facility.

Later, as next door neighbors on Mill Creek Lane in Healdsburg, Neal's and Grace's combined 11 children were friends and the two families interacted quite a bit, Neal said.

"He loved back-country powder skiing," Neal said of Grace, who had a ski cabin in Bear Valley near Lake Tahoe. "He was on a ski search and rescue team up there."

Grace's mother had lived to be 100, and Grace expected to do the same, Neal said. Neal bought out Grace's share of the medical office building, and they talked about how long Grace would have been making mortgage payments if he hadn't sold his share of the building to Neal.

"He told me, 'Oh no, I'm going to live to be 100, like my mom,'" Neal said. "He had a very clean lifestyle."

A celebration of Grace's life will be held 11 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 24, at in Healdsburg.

To read the Press Democrat article, click here.