The Lees

Elise (McKay) ’86 and Joseph Lee ‘87

Joe and I first met in 1984 when he was living on the second floor of Winthrop Hall and I was a junior, living on the first floor. He asked me to play on his intramural floor hockey team and I joined in.

Later I shared with him that my parents’ dog had a litter of puppies. His family’s dog had died recently, so he called his parents and they agreed to take a puppy. My parents brought it to the dorm with a red bow on its head for Joe’s parents to take home.

At that time I wasn’t all that attracted to him. I was a runner on the track team, two years older and he was working to become a CPA. Years later in 1999, I decided to bike across the country to raise money for the lung association, but needed $7,000 to participate. I wrote everyone I knew, including Joe, and we started talking via email.

The couple eventually started dating, and in 2008 they were married a few days before Elise’s 45th birthday. “A year and a half ago we adopted our son Jimmy from China. Life is good!”