William Lee Sanders ’34

Bill Lee, an outstanding citizen of Columbus, Miss., where he was born and lived all his life, died Dec. 8, 2002, after a long illness. He was 90.

A former chairman of the Lowndes County Library board of trustees, Bill Lee was honored in 1963, when the Columbus-Lowndes County Swimming Assn. board of directors voted to name the new swimming pool adjacent to the city park the William Lee Sanders Swimming Pool. Bill Lee's eldest son, Lee Jr., later became president of the Golden Triangle Swim League, and his namesake grandson, Will, broke state swimming records there in 1985.

Bill Lee, who as an undergraduate was known as "Coon," was associated with the Sanders Oil Co. in Columbus, the marketers of petroleum products in northeast Mississippi and west-central Alabama. He also served two terms as president of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and was "very active," in his words, in the formation of the $2 billion Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway project completed in 1985, after 14 years of construction.

Bill Lee is survived by his wife of 62 years, Winifred (Winnie) Sargent; sons Harry, David, and Lee; and seven grandchildren.

The Class of 1934