Obituary of Preston P Lee

Preston Pope Lee, age 101, passed away peacefully August 1, 2025, after a short period of declining health.

Born in Orange, New Jersey on December 21, 1923, to Charles Ridgely Lee, Jr. and Susan McKee (Rogers) Lee. Preston lived in South Orange (NJ), Shaker Heights (Ohio), and Old Greenwich (CT), prior to graduating from Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ.  In 1941 he enrolled in the Engineering School and Naval ROTC program at the University of Virginia.  At the University he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, Theta Tau, the professional engineering fraternity, The Raven Society, and Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society.  He was proud to have lived one year in the historic but spartan Barracks on the West Range of the Lawn.

Preston met Royce Carter Pace in Charlottesville (VA) and they married on March 1, 1944.  Preston served 3 years in the Navy during WWII as a commissioned officer from 1944 to 1947. After the war, Preston, Royce and baby Susan lived in Charlottesville with Royce’s mother and stepfather Grace and Cody Eubank while Preston completed his degree in Mechanical Engineering at UVA.

In 1947 Preston accepted a position in the engineering department at Colgate Palmolive, first in New York City and then later in Jersey City, NJ.  Royce and Preston moved to Madison, NJ where they lived for 28 years, raising their two daughters, Susan and Carter.  During the 39 years he worked for Colgate he travelled extensively to Company plants on 5 continents, and the family spent a year in Mexico City and two years in Sydney, Australia during his career.  In 1975 he was selected to represent Colgate as part of a USA five company engineering delegation to the then USSR. He was a Licensed Professional Engineer (LPE) and held two patents.  Preston retired from Colgate in 1986 as Director of Central Engineering but continued to work for Colgate as a consultant for several years. In retirement he was called on to oversee the relocation of the iconic Colgate face clock to the Hudson River waterfront when the Jersey City plant facility was razed.

Both Preston and Royce were active volunteers with the Friends of Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morristown, NJ, avid tennis players, and enjoyed traveling the world.  Preston had a lifelong passion for researching family genealogy, the Smithfield-Preston Foundation in Blacksburg, VA, and studying US and WWII naval history.  For many years he volunteered as a poll worker for both local and federal elections. Until recently he was a long-time member of the Presbyterian Church of Madison.

Predeceased by his wife of 79 years, in 2022 Preston moved from their home in Chatham Township, NJ, where they had lived for 47 years, to Sunrise of Madison. There he made friends with the staff and other residents, and where he was known as “the smart guy” during weekly trivia games.  He particularly enjoyed having his granddaughters Emilee and Caroline visit him there to work with him on jigsaw puzzles.

Preston is survived by his two daughters Susan Hunt Lee and her spouse, Fay E. Melendy of Silver Lake, NH; Carter Ridgely Lee and her spouse, Peter L. Maas of Madison, NJ; and two granddaughters, Emilee Grace Maas and Caroline Tao Maas of Madison, NJ.

Preston was recently buried at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky where members of his family have been interred since the mid 1800’s.  In lieu of flowers, donations in Preston’s honor may be made to the University of Virginia, School of Engineering, Charlottesville, VA.

Arrangements were under the care of Burroughs, Kohr & Dangler, Madison, NJ.