Rex E. Lee

Lee was born in Los Angeles, California, on February 27, 1935. His parents were Mabel (née Whiting) and Rex E. Lee. According to an obituary in American Rifleman, Lee's father was shot and killed during a hunting trip in November 1934, three months before he was born, thus making him a posthumous child. His mother later married Wilford Shumway. Lee served a mission for the LDS Church in the Mexican Mission, serving as second counselor to the mission president. After graduating in 1960, he attended the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. He graduated from Chicago in 1963 ranked first in his class. ==Early legal career and academia==

After law school, Lee served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court justice Byron White from 1963 to 1964. He then entered private practice at the law firm of Jennings, Strouss & Salmon in Phoenix, Arizona. Only four years after graduating from law school, Lee argued his first case before the U.S. Supreme Court, despite the fact that he had not yet led any depositions in a lower civil court. In 1972, Lee left private practice to become the founding dean of BYU's JRCLS, and is considered personally responsible for recruiting many members of its charter class. ==Supreme Court advocate and scholar==

Lee entered public service, first at the invitation of Attorney General Edward H. Levi, as an Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Division in the United States Department of Justice from 1975 to 1976. In 1980, Lee wrote A Lawyer Looks at the Equal Rights Amendment in which he analyzed arguments against the Equal Rights Amendment. He served as Solicitor General of the United States from 1981 to 1985 under President of the United States Ronald Reagan. During his time as Solicitor General, Lee won 23 of the 30 cases he argued during Reagan's first presidential term. Associate Justice White said that Lee "was the epitome of integrity". In 1986, Lee was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Lee managed to recover after about a year of cancer treatment and therapy and was named BYU's tenth president. According to some accounts, when Lee was asked to assume the position as university president, he accepted on the condition that he would still be able to argue cases before the Supreme Court in his spare time. He argued nine before his death. ==BYU presidency==

As president of BYU, Lee oversaw the creation of clear standards on employment requirements and academic freedom, especially in terms of religious education. Lee believed that religious perspectives in the classroom promote academic freedom rather than hinder it. He also oversaw the streamlining of graduation requirements to aid students in graduating more quickly. Specifically, he limited major requirements to 60 credit hours, encouraging graduation within four years or eight semesters. Furthermore, he reinstated weekly university devotionals. His administration was responsible for growing the size of the campus and prestige of the university. In 1993, Lee decided BYU would offer lower tuition for summer semester to increase enrollment. While president, Lee instituted a rule that added regular church attendance as a requirement for attending BYU (though regular church attendance was not defined), stating that the rule would not be used to force church attendance but that those best fitted to BYU's environment would, "cheerfully participate in church activity". In 1994, Lee created a committee to raise $250 million for the "Lighting the Way Capital Campaign" for the benefit of BYU and BYU-Hawaii to reach accreditation. The campaign was completed in December 1999, having earned over $400 million. Before Lee's tenure as BYU president was over, he struggled with lymphoma and peripheral neuropathy. ==Legacy==

During his career, Lee argued 59 cases before the Supreme Court. Future associate Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito served as an assistant to Solicitor General Lee from 1981 to 1985, where Alito argued 12 cases before the Court. According to scholar Rebecca Mae Salokar, Rex E. Lee brought the position of Solicitor General into the center of policymaking in the United States. Lee won one of the first Distinguished Utahn of the Year awards. Lee was an avid runner throughout his life (he was nominated to be Solicitor General two days after completing the Boston Marathon), ==Family==

Lee and his wife had seven children. His son Thomas Rex Lee was a justice of the Utah Supreme Court from 2010 to 2022. Lee was a first cousin of politicians Mo Udall and Stewart Udall. ==Works==