Edward Lee

Edward N. Lee (1935 – 2025)

Edward Nicholls Lee, age 90, died peacefully on Monday, July 21, 2025 at his home in Solana Beach. He is survived by his wife, Kathryn Ann Shevelow, two daughters, Sandra Diana Lee and Susanna Lee, six grandchildren (Peter, Maya, Nova, Charlotte, Ryan, and Thomas), three great-grandchildren (Elsa, Lana, and Wesley), five nephews, five nieces, and a host of great and great-great nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents Dorothy Nicholls and Richard Szu Mien Lee, and his younger brother, Richard Lee.

Edward was born on April 1, 1935, in Manhattan, NYC, and grew up in Flushing, Queens. He received his BA from Cornell University, served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army for two years, and received his PhD in ancient Greek philosophy from Princeton University in 1964. He taught at the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Texas, Austin before moving in 1970 to the Philosophy Department at the University of California, San Diego, where he was a professor of ancient Greek philosophy, specializing in Plato and the pre-Socratics, until his retirement in 1994. Ed loved a dry gin martini, and enjoyed collecting books, poking around estate sales, traveling (especially to Italy and London), and playing the piano, with a particular fondness for Bach. 

 Donations in his memory can be made to The Hospice of the North Coast in Carlsbad, CA.