A graduate of Nankai School in Tianjin, China, he arrived on campus in September 1917 with a cohort that included three fellow Nankai alumni: Wen Chien Feng, Fan Yi Kung, and Feng Tsai, and the only female Chinese student who attended Grinnell by the mid-twentieth century, Ngai Chen Shih. The group was led by the beloved and charismatic Nankai School President Zhang Boling, then on his way to Columbia University to study the US educational system in preparation to set up Nankai University.

Lee explained in an article that he came to Grinnell thanks to Williman Tuttle (’12, SB 11/03/1917), a Grinnell alumnus who taught at Nankai and sang high praises of his alma mater. On the more practical side, he was offered a full scholarship to attend Grinnell, just as fellow Nankai alumni Feng and Kung, who came with him at the same time. “Grinnell people make me feel at home,” claimed Lee, while noting the absence of lived-in servants in local homes, to him a sign that Grinnell women “actively fulfilled their womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood,” and the simple organization of the local government, marveling that “they are not lawless but law is useless.” At Grinnell Lee spoke on “the missionary movement in China” at a College YMCA meeting (GR 11/29/1917), organized a basketball quintet with fellow male Chinese students (SB 02/26/1919), and, together with several other Chinese students hosted the group of four prominent Chinese educators who visited Grinnell in November 1918, including Zhang Boling, Yan Xiu, Fan Yuanlian, and Sun Fengzao. He published an English article titled “Gentlemen of China” on the visit afterwards (The Chinese Students’ Monthly 14.3, Jan 1, 1919), documenting this momentous event of cultural and educational exchange between Grinnell and China.

Lee’s time at Grinnell was short and interspersed with commitments beyond campus. For instance, in the winter of 1918 he went to New York City to work on YMCA business, in addition to his related work in Grinnell. However, he undoubtedly made an impact both among his fellow students and in town. After finishing his studies at Grinnell, Lee returned to China. In 1921 he came to the US again as part of the Chinese delegation attending the Washington Naval Conference (aka The Pacific Conference) to renegotiate unresolved issues left from the Paris Peace Conference, including the “Shangdong Question” that ignited the May Fourth student demonstrations in China. Upon receiving the news of his return, Grinnell local media fondly described him as “a wide-awake man upon campus and has many friends here who will be glad to greet him” (GH 11/4/1921). Lee served in the KMT government as a diplomat and civil servant before he turned to banking, working as the branch manager of HSBC in Shanghai. He retired as member of the Political Consultation Committee in Shanghai after 1949.