Walter Lee

Walter Lee, 85, was born in Oct 1933 in Canton, China and passed away in Jan 2019 while residing in West Hills, CA at the time of his passing.


Walter's father Sam Lee was a poor immigrant working in California who sent money back to mother Ngon who reared Walter and his two older sisters Lindey and Mae in Canton, China. Walter grew up in hardship almost right away, caused by the Japanese occupation of China during WWII. While Sam was living in America, Ngon took the family and fled to a remote village to avoid most of the brutality of the soldiers. Mother was able to buy a home with some farmable land, grew crops, and raised rabbits and chickens. However, whatever food they were able to grow and raise wasn't enough to sustain them and they had to supplement with whatever they could scavenging and hunting locally.


Walter's schooling endured many hurdles during his lifetime. He enrolled in various schools and courses to attain his goal of becoming an engineer, which included restarting high school, community colleges, universities, night and summer schools, etc. He was accepted into some well-regarded universities including University of Shanghai, UC Berkeley, and CSU Northridge. This long journey was interrupted numerous times by life changing events such as WWII, immigration to America, military service during the Korean War, and moving from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Walter paid for much of the schooling himself by working menial jobs such as floor sweeper, dish washer, bus boy, stock boy, as well as some supplements that came from the GI Bill.


After WWII, Walter's father Sam, employed as a private chef, successfully filed an application with the help of his employer, a lawyer with a lot of influence in American politics in Washington, to allow Walter, age 20, and his mother to immigrate to the U.S. Despite a limited amount of English, Walter began to enroll in school again almost right away. During the Korean War, Walter was drafted into service, at age 22, with the Army where he was stationed overseas. With 2 years of service and an honorable discharge under his belt, he restarted his studies and eventually enrolled at UC Berkeley.


With the Cold War heating up as well as the 'Space Race', engineers were in high demand in the 1960s. Walter decided to take a chance and move to Los Angeles where much of space program and defense industries were located. He transferred before his senior year at UC Berkeley to CSU Northridge and earned his Bachelor's Degree at age 32. He accepted a job as an entry-level engineer at Litton Industries working in the Missile Guidance Division in Woodland Hills, CA where he worked until he retired as a senior design engineer in 1998 at age 65.


With help from his mother Ngon and other relatives, he was introduced to Elena, who also was born in Canton, China but grew up in the Philippines where she had just finished her Business and Finance degree. They were married in the spring of 1966, shortly bought a home in West Hills, CA, and had 3 children. Despite work and family obligations, he continued his education by attending night school and attained a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering.
Walter and Elena instilled the value of hard work and education and sacrificed much to give their children the best education, from starting school early, attending private schools, to extra summer sessions. They also did fun activities as well such as cub scouting, video games, roller-skating, swimming, short trips to Disneyland, Vegas, movies, etc. All the children graduated from California universities.


During his retirement years, Walter and Elena enjoyed the fruits of their labor and made numerous cruises and trips abroad, including Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Asia. The traveling was interrupted when Walter's former employer Litton asked multiple times if he would un-retire, which he did twice and worked additionally for over 2 years.


Walter is survived by his sons Walter Jr. and Norman; and daughter Annie; his son-in-law Fred; and two grandchildren Evan and Leah.


Walter will be laid to rest on Saturday, February 2nd; a small public service is scheduled. Arrangements are under the direction of Forest Lawn, Glendale, California.


In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation be made to the Cure Alzheimer's Fund https://curealz.org/.

Contact Info:

walter.lee.jr@gmail.com