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Valpo Remembers

Richard “Dick” Lee ’60

Fall 2019

Richard “Dick” Lee ’60 passed away on January 13, 2019.

Having logged 30 years of service to the University, Professor Lee is best known as one of Christ College’s founding faculty members. After graduating from Valparaiso University in 1960 with degrees in religion, speech & drama, and English, Richard completed his bachelor of divinity at the University of Chicago in 1964. In 1968, while finishing up his doctor of religion at Claremont School of Theology (now Claremont Lincoln University) in Claremont, California, Richard received a letter from Richard Baepler, whom he knew from his work as an admissions counselor for Christ College’s precursor, the Directed Studies program. Dean Baepler invited him to return to Valparaiso University and bring his diverse skills to the new, interdisciplinary honors college in an unspecified capacity. He and fellow professor Strachan Donnelly, for whom the Donnelly Prize is named, were initially the only two faculty appointed to teach exclusively in Christ College; others were borrowed from the College of Arts and Sciences. Richard was known especially for his course “America at the Movies.”

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