[2] At the urging of his father, a successful plumbing contractor, he enrolled at the United States Military Academy at West Point and played football and basketball.
in civil engineering, Anderson served in the U.S. Army at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona, where he oversaw materials procurement and construction services and was promoted to first lieutenant.
The Lee and Penny Anderson Arena will be home to the university's men's and women's basketball and hockey teams when it opens in fall 2025.
[8] Since 2002, the Andersons have given $6 million to Children's Hospital Boston for research on a rare form of muscular dystrophy, mini-core myopathy, that afflicts one of their grandchildren.
[10] Anderson also pledged to fund the first three years of Hiring Our Heroes, a program launched in 2011 by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with support from veteran service organizations, to stage job fairs across the country.
[12] The Andersons have also supported the St. David's Relief Foundation, a Texas-based Catholic nonprofit group that has assisted humanitarian efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina following the Yugoslav Wars (1991–1995).
[15] Anderson serves as director and trustee for numerous companies, organizations, outdoor groups, and academic institutions, including Breck School, the University of St. Thomas, and the Naples Children and Education Foundation.
As noted by the historian David McCullough, President Harry S. Truman admired a poem by the elder Anderson, posted on the wall of the head engineer's temporary headquarters on the South Lawn.