The gift of life is the greatest gift of all.

That’s why we’ll take a few words to appreciate the extraordinary personal commitment of Randy Weiss, vice president of community relations at Santa Barbara Bank & Trust.

Weiss, as has been reported, donated a kidney to help out Katherine Pinedo, a fellow bank employee whose immune system had been damaged by lupus, forcing her to undergo daily dialysis treatments.

The surgery took place in June and both are back at work. Weiss was named one of the Santa Barbara Region Chamber of Commerce Business Stars for the fourth quarter.

He joined Sherrie Fisher, general manager, Metropolitan Transit District, Professors Max Hofheinz, John Martinis and Andrew Cleland at UCSB’s Department of Physics and Ron Werft, president, Cottage Health System, in accepting the award Dec. 2.

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