Former board president Rotan E. Lee dies

Rotan E. Lee, who served as president of Philadelphia’s Board of Education and a key figure in Philadelphia school reform in the 1990s, died of heart failure April 24. He was 57.

Lee was appointed by former Mayor W. Wilson Goode as a member of the Board of Education in March 1989, and he served as board president from December 1992 to December 1994. As a board member and then president, Lee was known to put in long hours, including frequent visits to schools. The 1993 ruling of a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court that students of color were receiving a substandard education in the Philadelphia public schools was one of the central issues of his tenure, and racial equity was a topic that he often addressed with passion.

More recently, Lee had direct involvement in local school reform efforts during his tenure as executive vice president and general counsel for Universal Companies, managers of three Philadelphia schools.

Lee wore many hats: at his death he was a practicing attorney, a newspaper columnist for the Philadelphia Tribune and the Philadelphia Daily News, and a radio host.

A District testimonial in his honor presented by the School Reform Commission May 10 noted that “when he guided the business of the School District at public meetings, Rotan E. Lee was apt to reveal his love of literature by quoting Langston Hughes, and his infatuation with language by sprinkling the dialogue with a vocabulary worthy of the most rigorous college entrance test.”

The testimonial described Lee as “committed to ensuring that the District served all students as he would want his own children – who attended Philadelphia public schools – to be served.”