Dr. Frank Freeman Lee

PORTLAND - Dr. Frank Freeman Lee, 93, of Seventy-Five State Street, died Tuesday morning at Mercy Hospital following a short illness, during which time he was lovingly cared for by his devoted wife of 38 years, Ruth Balch Lee. He was born on March 19, 1920 in New York City, the son of Dr. Burton James Lee, Sr. and Louise Freeman Lee. His father was a WWI battlefield surgeon on the western front in France and later a well-known cancer surgeon in New York City. Frank graduated from Choate Preparatory School in Wallingford, CT in 1938, after which he attended a German high school outside Munich for one semester. He graduated from Yale University (1943) with a BS in International Relations. During World War II, he served aboard the destroyer, USS Boyle, in the Atlantic. After World War II he returned to Yale and earned his Masters and PhD in Sociology. His dissertation was on race relations in Branford, Connecticut and was published as a book, Negro and White in Connecticut Town. From 1948 to 1950, he was Publicity Director and fund raiser for Fisk University in Nashville, an African American college. Throughout his life, he was active in the Civil Rights movement. Dr. Lee spent 31 years teaching and doing research, retiring from Northeastern University in 1983. He then moved with Ruth to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dr. Lee was a founding member of the Rotary Club Del Sur and volunteered with Prison Fellowship at the Santa Fe State Penitentiary. He was an avid squash player, hiker, reader, and traveled extensively with his wife and family. He was also a generous donor to many charitable causes. In 2011 Dr. Lee and Ruth moved to Portland. Frank was predeceased by a sister, Louisa Fox, in 1978 and a half-brother Burton James Lee, Jr. in 1963. He is survived by his beloved wife, Ruth B. Lee, of Portland; three children from his first marriage in 1948 to Margaret Gallaher Lee: Maggie Peterson and husband Phil of Albuquerque, NM; Burton Hoyt Lee of Palo Alto, CA; Susan F. Lee of Arlington, VA; three stepsons, Ben Balch of Newton, MA; Nat Balch and wife Maggie Morrison of Durham, NH; Barney Balch and wife Paty Matrai of Newcastle, ME; two grandchildren, Phillip and Sis Peterson of Albuquerque, NM; and four step-grandchildren. Services will be private. Burial will be in the Memorial Cemetery of St. John's Church, Laurel Hollow, Long Island, NY. Donations in Dr. Frank Lee's memory may be made either to: St. John's Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 266 Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, or the Bach Festival of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 440 Heckewelder Place, Bethlehem, PA 18018. Arrangements are being handled by Conroy-Tully Crawford Funeral Home, 172 State Street, Portland, Maine.Online condolences may be expressed below.