Don Lee
The family and Homecrest community services have announced memorial services for Don Lee who passed away suddenly while on vacation. The family has requested donations be sent to HomeCrest Community services in lieu of flowers.
Memorial Service schedule
Brooklyn:
Visitation: Sunday, May 19th, 12pm-4pm, Wan Shou/Aievoli Funeral Home 萬壽殯儀館 (1275 65th St, Brooklyn, NY 11219)
Manhattan:
Memorial Service: Wednesday May 22nd, 2:00pm, Trinity Church Wall Street (76 Broadway, New York, NY 10006). A reception will follow at Trinity Commons Parish Hall at 3:00pm.
Here is an obituary posted by Homecrest.
Don Lee was born in Hong Kong in 1959. He immigrated to New York City at age 10 and grew up in Manhattan’s Chinatown, attending P.S.130 and Seward Park High School. He graduated from New York University, where he met his wife, Lai. Throughout college, he cooked at Hop Lee restaurant in Chinatown to support himself.
His professional career began after university as a public servant for the City of New York, where he worked under four different mayoral administrations. Notable accomplishments at the City included automating operations for the Mayor’s Office, creating a new management system for the Fulton Fish Market, and vastly increasing small and medium business access to city contracts through automating a Bid-Match Program for the Department of Business Services. From there, Don’s work in IT extended to healthcare, serving as Chief Information Officer for the South Manhattan Healthcare Network. He transformed the IT systems of Bellevue Hospital Center and other significant institutions in the network, improving service to thousands of users across the facilities. His critical work in healthcare IT included work for the Coalition of Asian American IPA, Inc.
But beyond his professional work in supporting communities across New York, at the core of Don’s passion was his community activism. Throughout his entire life, he was passionate about advocating for the dignity and rights of Asian Americans, from always standing up for himself, his family, and his friends, to advocating on wider scales for justice. Beginning with service on his local community board, his activism spring-boarded through his protests for transportation access for Asian American communities during the Grand Street Subway closure in 1995. During 9/11, he worked to raise support for Chinatown businesses in the wake of the tragedy, and served as a liaison in connecting local businesses with FEMA. His activist work since then is too numerous to detail in full, but a particularly significant victory was changing the law to support Chinatown street vendors to receive licenses and fight against unfair treatment.
Don’s passion for Asian American representation and Chinese cooking also took the form of his historical research into the diets of Chinese Transcontinental Railroad workers. He spent months conducting primary source research into the subject, culminating in a cooking demonstration that he proudly presented multiple times at Railroad commemorations around the country, including its 150th anniversary in Ogden, Utah.
Recently, during the COVID pandemic, Don was tireless in fighting against Anti-Asian hate, working to ensure that hate crimes against Asians were named and prosecuted accordingly. Even more recently, Don was working with the Ong brothers to demand justice for the family. Up until his very last days, he was on the phone trying to support the family.
Underlying all of these professional and activist endeavors was his leadership at Homecrest Community Services, a non-profit organization serving immigrant seniors and their families in South Brooklyn. Taking over from its founders, he served as the organization’s Board Chair for over 20 years. Homecrest was his pride and joy, and he worked tirelessly to provide services and advocate for the rights of disadvantaged communities, from setting up health fairs, to leading rallies, to delivering hot meals to members during the COVID pandemic. Under his leadership, he established three centers that covered a wide area of South Brooklyn. His further accomplishments at Homecrest are too numerous to name here, and his work has had impact on countless families and individuals.
On May 6th, 2024, while on vacation to South America, he experienced a sudden serious illness, and unfortunately passed away. Although he has gone too soon, his legacy in advocating for the rights of Asian American communities – and encouraging Asian Americans to speak up for themselves, to be proud of their identity and their heritage – will live on in all of us whose lives he touched so meaningfully. His life should encourage us all to follow in his footsteps and take action against injustice when we see it.
李宗保於1959年出生在香港，10歲時移民到紐約市，在曼哈頓唐人街長大，就讀於華埠130小學和蘇域柏高中。他畢業於紐約大學，在那裡他認識了他的妻子麗芬。整個大學期間，他在唐人街的合利大飯店打工以維持生計。
大學畢業後，他的職業生涯始於紐約市政府的一名公職人員，曾在四位不同的市長任期內為紐約政府工作。他在市政府的顯著成就包括為市長辦公室開創自動化運營，為富爾頓海鮮市場創建新的管理系統，並通過自動化匹配程序大幅增加了小型和中型企業獲得市政府合同的機會。隨後，他的信息技術工作擴展到了醫療保健領域，擔任南曼哈頓醫療網絡的首席信息官。他改造了表維醫院及其他重要機構的信息技術系統，為成千上萬用戶改善了設施使用服務。他在醫療信息技術領域的重要工作還包括為亞美醫師協會工作。
然而，除了在紐約各社區提供專業支持的工作之外，李宗保的核心熱情在於他的社區倡導主義。整個一生中，他熱衷於為亞裔美國人的尊嚴和權利發聲，從始終為自己、家人和朋友站出來，到在更廣泛的層面上倡導正義。從在社區委員會的服務開始，到1995年格蘭街地鐵站關閉期間為亞裔美國人社區爭取交通服務，他的倡導主義進一步躍升。9/11事件期間，他努力為唐人街企業在悲劇發生後的重建工作募集支持，並作為聯絡員將當地企業與FEMA聯繫起來。自那時起，他的倡導主義工作多得難以詳述，其中一個特別重要的勝利是改變法律以支持唐人街街頭小販獲得執照並對抗不公平待遇。
李宗保對亞裔美國人代表性和中國烹飪的熱情還體現在他對鐵路華工飲食的歷史研究上。他花了數月時間進行原始資料研究，最終多次在鐵路紀念活動上進行烹飪演示，包括在猶他州奧格登舉行的150週年紀念活動。
最近，在COVID-19疫情期間，李宗保不知疲倦地抗擊反亞裔仇恨，努力確保針對亞裔的仇恨犯罪得到命名和相應的起訴。更近期，李宗保與鄧氏兄弟一起，要求為兩兄弟爭取正義。直到最後一刻，他還在電話中支持這個家庭。
在所有這些職業和倡導主義努力的背後，是他在松柏之家社區服務中心的領導，這是一家為南布魯克林的移民老人及其家庭服務的非營利組織。從他接替創始人，擔任該組織的董事會主席已超過20年。松柏之家是他的驕傲和喜悅，他不知疲倦地工作，提供服務，並為弱勢群體倡導權利，從組織社區健康資源日到領導集會，再到在COVID-19疫情期間向社區送餐。在他的領導下，他建立了覆蓋南布魯克林廣大地區的三個社區中心。他在松柏之家的其他成就多得無法一一列舉，他的工作影響了無數家庭和個人。
2024年5月6日，他在南美洲度假時突發重病，不幸去世。儘管他走得太早，但他在為亞裔美國人社區爭取權利方面的遺產，以及鼓勵亞裔美國人為自己發聲，為他們的身份和繼承感到自豪的精神，將永遠在我們這些被他深深觸動的人心中延續下去。他的一生應該激勵我們所有人，見到不公時應挺身而出，採取行動，並為弱勢社群仗義執言。
https://secure.givelively.org/donate/homecrest-community-services-inc/don-lee-memorial-fund
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