Obituary of Richard "Dick" Lee
Obituary for Richard (Dick) Henry Lee
Dick died peacefully on August 25, 2022, at the age of 91. He leaves his loving wife, Sylvia Lee (Gibb) and four children from a previous marriage to Mance Carbery; daughter Rebecca Lee (Rob), son Heward Lee (Mary), daughter Chris Lee (Jennifer) and son Richard Lee. He also has four adoring grandchildren, Meghan (Walter), Aaron (Alisha), Maresa (Trevor) and Mara.
Dick was born on November 23, 1930 to Tannis Elizabeth Somerset and Richard H. Lee. He spent the first 12 years of his life in the USA and moved back to Toronto where he attended Pickering College and Jarvis Collegiate. He attended Queen’s University where he received a BA in English. He was an athlete (football, tennis, curling) and a teacher at both Pickering College and the Reading Institute in Toronto. Dick spent most of his career in educational publishing at both Gage Publishing and Ginn Publishing Canada. He also held the position of President of the Canadian Book Publishers’ Council in the 1970s.
Upon retirement, Dick and Sylvia moved to Kingston. It wasn’t long before Dick became a cherished member of the Senior’s Community. He contributed more than 100 short stories to the Senior’s Association Vista Magazine that have, in the words of his dear friend John Fielding, “delighted, enlightened and even inspired others”. Dick’s real passion was for jazz music. He had an extensive knowledge of musicians and their life stories. He even guest hosted 4 radio programs for the Queen’s University radio station, where his love of jazz was apparent to his listeners. Dick also greatly valued his friendships, both life-long and new. All who knew him loved him. Dick was a quiet man, and yet he had a great deal to say. His stories conveyed his love of family, friends, his interests and the life around him. He was known to rate a meal or 2 and we all rate him as a 10 out of 10 for the great man, husband, friend, father and grandfather he was. He will be missed by many.
His family would like to extend a sincere thanks to the Palliative Care team at KGH. In his memory, donations to the Oscar Peterson School of Music (Royal Conservatory Toronto) and the Senior’s Association of Kingston, ON would be greatly appreciated.
