When he was 12 years old, Lee became one of the first children to participate in an official Indian foster placement program sponsored by the LDS Church.

Lee remained in their home for seven years, returning to his Navajo family during summer vacations, until he graduated from Orem High School in 1962.

[3] In Arizona, Lee taught at the Rough Rock Demonstration School and later served as president of the Ganado campus of Diné College.

After graduating from high school, Lee served as a missionary for the LDS Church to the Navajo Nation, known then as the "Southwest Indian Mission".

On October 3, 1975, LDS Church president Spencer W. Kimball called the 32-year-old Lee to be a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, a position with church-wide responsibilities.

But Tuesday before a 3rd District judge, Lee humbly hung his head and admitted to touching the girl's breasts for sexual gratification ...

[13] After his death, Latter-day Saint sociologist Armand Mauss described Lee as "one of the truly tragic figures in modern Mormon history".