Douglas H. LEE

DOUGLAS H. LEE On October 3, 2018 in his 90th year in Toronto from the complications of prostate cancer. The youngest son of Avis Haw and James S. Lee, active figures in Montreal's Chinese-Canadian community, Doug was born in 1927 and grew up in depression-era Notre Dame de Grace. Pushed by his father to study agriculture, he entered McGill University but on discovering architecture, switched course. He left with a B. Arch and went on to University of Illinois to study Engineering. At Illinois, a discussion with one of his teachers led him to a nascent development project in Toronto. The Don Mills project was the most ambitious urban development scheme in North America, and in 1953 at the age of 25, Doug was appointed the Chief Architect. The homes and communities he and his team produced are now considered exemplars of liveable modernism. Doug's work was defined by a penchant for simplicity and a highly practical bent. These qualities carried him through a career that included co-founding a Toronto architectural firm, serving as President of the Ontario Association of Architects, and sitting on the City of Toronto Committee of Adjustment. But the role that probably mattered most to Doug was that of teacher at the University of Toronto's School of Architecture where he was a steadying influence for over 30 years. At a time when the architectural cult of personality was at its apex, he was determined that the fundaments of professional education not be overlooked. He prepared successive cohorts of students with an understanding of materials, and of the business side of architectural practice. An outsider himself, he took an interest in foreign students and visiting faculty, often bringing them home to dinner, or treating them to rides (frequently wet) up the Georgian Bay shore in the family launch. In this generosity, lifelong friendships took root. In retirement, Doug joined his wife Joey in support of her civic and political causes, accompanied her on educational trips abroad, tended the magnificent rose garden in their Toronto home, and took an active interest in the projects of his musical children, of whom he was very proud. The final decade of his life was characterized mainly by his role as caregiver, following Joey's diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Moving them into an assisted-living facility, Doug devoted himself entirely to Joey's health and comfort, living with her independently as long as she was able, and visiting her downstairs in long term care several times a day once this was no longer possible. For many of their neighbours, the lasting image of Doug is likely to be of him in his eighties, pushing Joey bundled in her wheelchair out the facility doors so that she can take in the air. Doug is predeceased by his wife, Jocelyn (nee Hodge); sisters, Eleanor Lor, Margaret Lu, and Norma Wang; and by his brother, Wilson. He is survived by sister, Dorothy Hsi; and by children, James, Mary, Peggy, and Eric. He leaves grandchildren, Dexter and Curtis van der Schyff, Jocelyn and Laura Patterson, and Claire and Lucie Lee-Coudouel; as well as many nieces and nephews in Canada, the US, and East Asia. In lieu of flowers, the family suggest that donations be made to the Christie Gardens Foundation or other deserving charity.