By all accounts, Jim Lee, who earned a degree in electrical engineering from UNL in 1958, led a quiet and unassuming life. His death earlier this year, though, left a tremendous impact on the city of McCook thanks to the $5 million estate gift he left to the southwest Nebraska community.
Lee, who was living in Hastings at the time of his death in early 2023, was born and raised in McCook. Lee’s estate gift will benefit the McCook Community Foundation Fund, McCook YMCA, the Community Hospital Foundation, the McCook Educational Foundation and Overland Trails Council Boy Scouts of America chapter. It’s a reflection on his life and the community that raised him as he served on the YMCA’s board of directors and lived an active lifestyle, including cycling where he once completed a ride from McCook all the way north to New Brunswick, Canada and back when he was 62. The total mileage in the route exceeded 5,000 miles.
Lee’s engineering career extended from Columbus, Nebraska as a transmission planning engineer for Nebraska Public Power District and all the way west to Utah where he worked for Moon Lake Electric in Vernal and later South Jourdan before his retirement.
For more information about Jim Lee’s legacy gift to the McCook community, go to: https://bit.ly/3LNMYDJ