Raymond Yee Lee's Obituary
Raymond Yee Lee (Yu Guo Wei 余国伟)was born on January 19, 1940 to Moon S. Fong and Yock Woon Yee in Taishan, China. His Chinese name translates to great, robust, and extraordinary. He emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 8 and became a U.S. Citizen in 1951. Raymond grew up in San Francisco on Turk Street and then Taylor Street as the 2nd oldest sibling of seven children. Starting at a young age, he contributed to helping his parents with their laundry business. He graduated from Lowell High School and then later went on to complete a B.A. degree in Accounting from California State University, Hayward.
At the age of 19, he met his wife to be Marilyn at a San Francisco YWCA dance where he asked her to save the last 3 dances for him which she obliged. . . “In the Still of the Night”, “The Great Pretender”, then things became foggy by the third song. It was clear, though, that Ray and Marilyn fell in love and married on October 29, 1961 at the Highlands Inn Carmel.
Prior to marriage, Raymond joined the U.S. Army voluntary draft in 1960 and served for over 2 years. He received an Honorable Discharge with decorations of Marksman, Sharpshooter, and Good Conduct Medal. It was during his Army service that he gained the nickname of “Marilyn’s Soldier Boy” named after the song by The Shirelles.
Following completion of his military service, Raymond returned home to his lovely “M.M.” (Marilyn Mark). San Francisco became their home and there, he worked as a real estate agent and then for Wells Fargo Bank. In 1966, Raymond and Marilyn moved to San Jose for Raymond to take a job with IBM where he received training as a Software Engineer and held many positions during his career there. He would go on to work for IBM for 35+ years.
San Jose became their permanent home and as the city grew over the years, so did their family of four children Randy (1963), Troy (1967), Todd (1971), and Tami (1976).
In addition to his wife and children, Raymond’s memories are cherished by: daughter-in-laws Jungmi and Trannie, son-in-law John, and grandchildren Collette, Joshua, Sierra, Danica, and Tristine (Miso).
During retirement, Raymond and Marilyn traveled the world extensively by land, air, and sea – together, they went on over 20 cruises. Cruising was proudly introduced to the rest of the family. As a showing of Raymond’s lifelong trait of generosity, he and Marilyn treated the entire family to two cruises: in 2008 on the Ruby Princess Western Caribbean Cruise, and again on Raymond’s final cruise in 2016 on the Regal Princess Eastern Caribbean Cruise.
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