Dean Edell - Private Life

Private Life

Born in New York state 26 March 1941 to a Jewish family, Edell studied zoology at Cornell University and earned his M.D. from Cornell University Medical School in 1967. Edell later opened a private ophthalmology practice in San Diego, California and acted as an instructor of Anatomy and a clinical instructor at the University of California, San Diego. Edell soon left private practice. He later said that he "... didn't like medicine originally...I kind of found the thing I love the most, which is really the information and communicating the information".

He spent the next several years experimenting with lifestyles that included buying and selling antiques, acting as a silversmith and goldsmith, organic farming, painting, living in a 1950s-vintage bus and engaging in a self-described hand-to-mouth existence that included scavenging for food thrown out by grocery stores. During this period he describes himself as a hippie.

In the mid 1970s, Edell served as medical director of the County Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Center in Sacramento, California. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1980, and currently lives in rural Mendocino County.

Edell maintains collections of Chinese art, Chinese snuff bottles, and rare books on anatomy. On October 5, 2007, Christie's held an auction of Edell's anatomy art collection.

Edell's sister is a Hollywood costume designer.