Anchorage resident Dominic Shi-Fong Lee, 78, died unexpectedly but peacefully at home on July 3, 2020. Mr. Lee was born in Hong Kong during the Second Sino-Japanese War to Thomas Tung Hai Lee and Theresa Kin Mo Ho Lee.
He grew up in Macau and Hong Kong, attending Tang King Po High School, a Catholic high school, where he excelled in Chinese literature and history. With only $30 to his name, he came to America at the age of 18. Mr. Lee received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering degree and three other graduate degrees in electrical, mechanical, and aerospace engineering from the University of Missouri. He married Freddie Sue on Sept. 15, 1968, in Princeton, Missouri, and he and his family moved to Anchorage, Alaska, in 1977.
A licensed professional engineer in several states for over 40 years, Mr. Lee owned and operated Little Susitna Construction Company, one of the most respected construction and engineering firms in Alaska. He is noted for being the first engineer to develop a medical EKG recording from a patient in rural Missouri through telephone lines for diagnosis; providing the engineering design for construction in the Arctic Circle of over 400 meters of permafrost for ARCO; conducting construction management for over 500 projects for the U.S. Coast Guard on the East and West Coasts and in Alaska and Hawaii; and providing the engineering design of the Anchorage Marriott Hotel and the renovated Bonneville hydroelectric two mile-long dam at Columbia River, Oregon.
Multitalented, Mr. Lee was a Confucian scholar and author of "The American Missionaries, The Mandarins, and the Opium War Canton China (Circa 1839)"; a stamp expert with the American Philatelic Society; an art collector; and a student of the great impressionists, painting over 90 oil paintings, of which 70 were completed in three months last year.
Full of life, generous, resilient, a hardworking achiever, and a loving father and provider, Mr. Lee lived his American dream.
He is survived by his wife, Freddie, four children and their spouses, and six grandchildren: Chris Lee and his wife Sean of New Orleans, Louisiana; Amy Story, her husband Zach, and daughter Louisa of Atlanta, Georgia; Benji Lee, his wife Laura, and their sons Zeke, Rufus, and Monty of New Orleans, Louisiana; and Julie Hojnacki, her husband Darren, and their children Willa and Rylan of Anchorage, Alaska. He is also survived by his brother John Lee, his wife Echo, and sons Jonathan and Jordan.
A private visitation gathering for family and friends will be held at Legacy Heritage Chapel at Angelus, located at 440 E. Klatt Rd., Anchorage, Alaska, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. this Thursday, July 9.
*All obituaries are submitted by family and friends of the deceased.
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