Lee earned his BS degree in Geology from Notre Dame, where he worked closely with Ray Gutschick. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. When Lee came to Indiana he became involved in the program at the Indiana University Geological Field Station in Montana, which was directed by Judson Mead. Lee first worked at the Field Station in 1959 as a student field assistant for Ray Gutschick and has returned to the Station practically every summer since, first as a student, then as an NSF undergraduate research participant, then as a faculty member and, beginning in 1961, as Director of the Field Station. One of the most important innovations Lee made at the Field Station was the addition of graduate research seminars. These have attracted some of the most highly qualified graduate students from all over North America to the Station to work with outstanding researchers on field-based problems.

Narrative excerpted from Journal of Geological Education, 1989, v. 37, p. 80