Los Angeles
County
Biographies
HENRY F. LEE
The
president of the Optimist Club of Alhambra is the husband of the president of
the Alhambra Opti-Mrs Club. Mr. Henry F.
Lee of 1470 Belgreen Drive, La Puente, California,
has been active in the Optimist Club since 1955. He was the Club’s treasurer in 1959 and its
vice-president during the 1960-61 year.
His
wife, the former Miss Isabelle Ann Lorge, was honored
with the presidency of the women’s auxiliary of the Alhambra Optimist Club for
the 1960-61 year.
Mrs.
Lee works with her husband as secretary-treasurer of his firm, The Atlas
Specialty Bag Company, at 1310-18 Velasco Street, Los Angeles, California. Mr. Lee is executive vice president and
part-owner of this, the largest California-owned specialty bag manufacturing
plant in the state. His firm produces
approximately 150 million specialty bags per year for industry, retail stores,
and the medical field.
Mr.
Lee is a native of Northfield, Vermont.
The son of Mr. Percy D. Lee and the former Miss Mary Elizabeth Couch, he
was born on June 29, 1916. He started
his education in Vermont and completed his elementary schooling at the Lankershim Elementary School, North Hollywood, California,
in 1931. A 1935 graduate of Roosevelt
High School in Los Angeles, Mr. Lee attended night classes in business
management and production engineering at the University of Southern California,
Los Angeles, while he was managing the employee’s store of the Los Angeles B.
F. Goodrich Co. plant.
In
1940 Mr. Lee moved to the Western Waxed Paper Company in Los Angeles, where he
learned, then supervised the operation of their specialty bag making
equipment. From 1942 to 1945, when he
began a year with the U. S. Army, Mr. Lee was superintendent of the specialty
bag department at the Capitol Envelope Company in Los Angeles.
The
Atlas Specialty Bag Company began operations in 1946 with three factory
employees and Mr. Lee as plant superintendent.
Sales volume for 1946 approached $50,000. The death of a partner in the firm in 1948
resulted in management status for Mr. Lee and led to a partnership, partial-ownership
and the position of executive vice-president when the company incorporated in
1954. By 1961 the firm was employing
twenty-six people and nearing the $600,000 mark in yearly sales volume.
Mr.
Lee is very proud of the company’s two bowling teams. They have received many trophies and have not
fallen below second place in their league for the past four years. Most of Mr. Lee’s spare time is devoted to
the Alhambra Optimist Club, but he likes to bowl and swing a golf club
occasionally.
In
Mr. Lee the Alhambra Masonic Lodge has had a faithful member since 1956. He belongs to the Knights Templar and Royal
Arch Masons of California, has been an Al Malaikah Shriner since 1958, and is a
Keynoter in good standing in the Potentate’s 1961 Keynoter Club. He has also been an active member in the Paper
Mill Men’s Club of Southern California since 1948 and holds membership in the
California Country Club at La Puente, California.
Mr.
and Mrs. Lee were married in Los Angeles on June 25, 1938. One of their three children, Mr. Norman
Howard Lee, is assistant manager of the Atlas Specialty Bag Company. He and his wife Penny, have three children,
Steven, Deborah and Donald. They make
their home in Whittier, California. Mrs.
Larry (Tyra Ann Lee) Dorothy has a daughter, Nancy,
and her family resides in Pasadena. The
Lee’s youngest son, Mr. Ronald Arthur Lee, attends Whittier High School.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Pages 526-528, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES