LEE, Knute David William "Bill" 1916-1999

GLASRUD, LEE, FOSTER, THIES, QUARVE, SEIM, HYSELL

Posted By: IAGenWeb Volunteer
Date: 9/11/2010 at 18:58:30

Decorah Public Opinion, Tuesday, February 9, 1999

Knute Lee

Knute Lee, 82, of Bellevue, Wash., and formerly of Spring Grove, Minn., died Wednesday, Feb. 3, 1999, in Bellevue.

Funeral services were held Monday, Feb. 8, at 1 p.m., at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Spring Grove, Minn., with burial in the church cemetery. The Roble Funeral Home handled arrangements.

Knute W.D. Lee was a former United States Navy pilot whose World War II exploits included sinking the Japanese I-17 submarine, later became a Lutheran pastor and well-known Bible teacher.

In August of 1943, as a pilot of Navy Squadron 57 based at Noumea, New Caledonia in the South Pacific, Lee dropped depth charges to sink the enemy submarine which, it was later determined, had sunk American shipping off the west coast of the United States and which Lee himself sought while flying patrols there a year earlier.

There were six Japanese submariners surviving and Ensign Lee had the rare opportunity of interviewing them in a prisoner-of-war compound. The episode had a profound effect on him and contributed to his decision to become a Lutheran minister, according to his 1984 memoir, "Survivor: Knute's Wild Story."

Lee's book also records his experience near the end of the war of being picked up from the sea off the coast of Japan by an American submarine after his fighter plane had run out of fuel and had to be ditched. He had flown protective cover for two hours over his wingman, who had been shot down and was in a rubber life raft in the harbor at Kure.

Finally, Lee was forced by low fuel to try to return to his carrier, but it was too late. The other pilot's fate was never determined. However, a rescue submarine welcomed Lee aboard. Then he was transferred to sea to another submarine and emerged at Guam to discover the war was over.

For his service, Lee received both the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Silver Star for conspicuous heroism.

Lee retired from the faculty of the Lutheran Bible Institute in Issaquah, Wash., in 1981, having taught there since 1973. Earlier, he was on the faculty of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash. (1961-64), and Luther College in Decorah (1953-61).

He was pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Tacoma, Wash., from 1964-73, and at Manette Lutheran Church in Bremerton, Wash., from 1948-51.

Lee was chaplain for construction workers of Project "Blue Jay," building the huge air base at Thule, Greenland, from 1951-52. This became the basis for his first book, "Plain Talk in an Artic Chapel.

Knute William David Lee, always known to his family as "Bill," was born March 19, 1916, in Spring Grove, Minn., the son of Knute and Mathilda (Glasrud) Lee.

He attended Luther College after graduating in 1933 from his hometown high school.

After college, he served from 1937-41 as high school band director and teacher in Little Cedar, in Madison, Minn., and in Glasglow, Mont.

Following World War II, Lee studied at Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., and was ordained as a Lutheran pastor in 1948. He received a doctorate in education from Columbia University in New York in 1961.

Lee married Shirley Foster, then a native of New Rockford, N.D., in 1946, a student nurse and later a public school teacher, who survives. She lives in Duvall, Wash.

Also surviving are four sons, David of Columbia, Md., Robert of Enumclaw, Wash., John of Burien, Wash., and Philip of Sacramento, Calif.; 11 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren! one brother, Robert Lee of Baldwin, N.Y.; and four sisters, Margaret Thies of Tampa, Fla., and Barbara Quarve, Juliet Seim and Naomi Hysell, all of Rochester, Minn.

For several years, Lee suffered from Alzheimer's Disease and had been in a Bellevue (Wash.) nursing home since 1997.

Transcribed by an IA GenWeb Volunteer from obituaries found in the Howard-Winneshiek Genealogy Society Library, Cresco, Iowa.