Page 52 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 1 Fall 2013

52
1955
Richard Vaille Lee
professor of
medicine and
dedicated global
physician, died
suddenly on May
7, 2013, at his
home in Orchard
Park, N.Y. He
was 75.
Born in Islip,
N.Y., on May 26, 1937, to Louis and Erma
(Little) Lee, he attended Henry W. Saxe
Junior High School in New Canaan, Conn.,
before entering the Third Form at St. Paul’s
School in 1951. His father, a building
contractor in New York, was in charge of
construction of two new St. Paul’s School
buildings at the time.
Mr. Lee ranked near the top of his form
throughout his four years at the School.
He earned Second Testimonials in 1953,
1954, and 1955, and Second Dickey Prizes
in English and History in 1954.
A member of the Cadmean/Concordian
Literary Society and the Yearbook staff,
he also served as a house supervisor.
Mr. Lee spent a year at Loretto School
in Scotland after graduating cum laude
from St. Paul’s. He went on to Yale
University, following in the footsteps of
both his father and his paternal grand-
father, Li Yan Phou, who was one of the
first Chinese students to be educated
in the United States. Mr. Lee earned his
B.S. in 1960. In 1961 he married Susan
Bradley. He went on to earn his medical
degree from Yale, graduating cum laude
in 1964, with membership in the National
Honor Medical Society, Alpha Omega
Alpha. While at medical school, Mr. Lee
was awarded the Ferris Prize in anatomy
and the Winternitz Pathology Prize.
He did his internship, residency, and
fellowship in infectious disease at Yale-
New Haven Hospital. Between his second
and third years of residency, he spent
two years with the U.S. Public Health
Service at the Fort Peck Indian Reserva-
tion in Poplar, Mont., followed by a year
in general practice in the small town of
Chester, Mont., doing everything from
surgery and deliveries to house calls and
ambulance calls.
Mr. Lee was proud of his Chinese heri-
tage and developed a lifelong interest in
promoting educational exchanges between
the United States and China, both as a
trustee of the Yale-China Association and
as a member of a UB delegation that visited
China to renew the university’s affiliation
agreement with Capital University in Beijing.
Among other involvements, Mr. Lee
was also a trustee of the Buffalo Academy
of Medicine (president from 1985 to 1996);
a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
and the Royal Society of Medicine in Lon-
don, the American College of Physicians,
and the Explorers Club in New York; a
consultant in internal medicine to the
Buffalo Zoo and Bronx Zoo; a trustee of
Nichols School in Buffalo; and a board
member of the Shaw Festival in Niagara-
on-the-Lake, Ont.
Mr. Lee is survived by his wife of 52 years,
Susan; his two sons, Matthew and Ben-
jamin; two grandchildren; and many other
friends and family.
1960
Jeremiah Evarts Sr.
literary scholar
and passionate
teacher, died at his
home in Cornish,
N.H., on July 19,
2013, after a battle
with cancer. He
was 71.
The son of
Prescott Evarts
of the Form of 1919 and Elizabeth Evarts
of New York City and Windsor, Vt., Mr.
Evarts was born on October 15, 1941.
He prepared for St. Paul’s at the Dalton
School in New York City before entering
the School as a Second Former in the fall
of 1955.
At St. Paul’s, Mr. Evarts excelled not only
in the classroom but also on the playing
fields and in other student organizations.
Together with his roommate and co-editor,
Mr. Evarts produced the centennial issue
of the student literary magazine Horae
Scholasticae during his Sixth Form year,
about which he wrote, “Rick Jones and I
labored over that, starting in the summer
of 1959.” He earned the Horae Editor’s
Medal at his graduation. Mr. Evarts was
He returned to New Haven and became
director of medical clinics and later dir-
ector of the Primary Care Center. He rose
to the rank of associate professor of
clinical medicine and chief of general
medicine of Yale University.
Mr. Lee left Yale in 1976 to become pro-
fessor and vice chairman of the Depart-
ment of Medicine at the State University
of New York at Buffalo and chief of medical
service at Buffalo Veterans Administration
Medical Center. In 1979, Mr. Lee became
head of the Department of Medicine of
Children’s Hospital of Buffalo and remained
in that position until 1997. As a faculty
member of the University of Buffalo, he
held positions in pediatrics, obstetrics-
gynecology, social and preventive medi-
cine, and anthropology.
Mr. Lee was a renowned leader in
obstetric medicine, a field specializing
in the treatment of disease, infection,
and complications during pregnancy.
He was a founding member of the Inter-
national Society of Obstetric Medicine
and received its C.G. Barnes Award for
outstanding contributions to the field in
2007. The North American Society of
Obstetric Medicine has established a
lecture in Mr. Lee’s name, to be given at
its annual meeting.
He was passionate about international
health, tropical medicine, and the complex-
ities of managing medical complications
of pregnancy and the health state of geo-
graphically isolated human populations,
including the Rendille tribe of Northern
Kenya; the Kayapo, Parakana, and Apalai
tribes of Brazil; and the Ladakh people of
Northwestern Himalaya. His work abroad
included medical expeditions with graduate
students and other physicians to remote
villages in India in the 1980s and 1990s,
and visits to the Amazon jungle and the
Andes. He also provided health services
in Thailand to refugees from Laos and
Cambodia.
Through his work with Tibetan refugees
in India, he became acquainted with the
Dalai Lama and later served on the UB
committee that brought the spiritual leader
to Buffalo in 2006. Mr. Lee and his wife
also established a fund to support Tibetan
students and Tibetan studies at UB. In
addition, Mr. Lee consulted for the World
Health Organization’s Collaborating Center
for Health in Housing, based in Buffalo.
DECEASED