| Calvin B.T. Lee and Audrey Lee |
When he was 17, his father died, leaving him as the general manager of Lee's Restaurant, New York City's oldest Chinese restaurant. He managed the restaurant for seven years while completing his undergraduate and legal studies at Columbia.
In 1958 he joined a Wall Street law firm, but took a leave of absence in 1961 to formulate and direct an innovative program for Columbia College. In 1968 he was appointed dean of the College of Liberal Arts of Boston University where he also served as acting president and still later as executive vice-president. From 1971 to 1976, he was chancellor of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He then became a full vice president at the Prudential Insurance Company in charge of evaluating the educational, training and developmental needs of the company.
He was the author of several books on higher education, political science and Chinese cooking and culture. He died of cancer at age 49 in 1983.
His wife and co-author of the Gourmet Chinese Regional Cookbook, Audrey Evans Lee was born in Philadelphia and is a graduate of Barnard College. She, too, is an expert cook and rivaled her husband in the preparation of Chinese specialties for family dining and entertaining.
Following her husband’s death, she went on to earn an MBA from New York University and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. She was ordained by the Presbyterian Church [USA] and served for a number of years as an intentional interim minister. Now retired and living in Somers, NY, she serves as a docent at the Katonah Museum of Art and a member of the board of the Friends of the Somers Library. She is an artist, an active local singer, and an enthusiastic traveler.
