Late Detroit banking legend still inspiring change

When it comes to Black banking pioneers in Detroit, my father, the late Dr. Aubrey W. Lee Sr. comes to mind.

Mark S. Lee is founder, president and CEO, e LEE Group, and can be heard on “ e Weekly Wrap Up, Saturdays, 2-4 p.m. EST, and “In the Conference Room”, Sundays, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. EST, on 910am.

To this day, many stop me to thank me for his contributions to the city and the nancial services industry — near and far.

He was a role model to countless bankers and blazed the trails for others who would follow his legendary career, not just in Detroit, but across the country.

Growing up in Huntington, West Virginia, Lee was raised by his mother and grandmother. ey instilled values of focus, discipline, and hard work. Education was certainly a priority — although his grandmother had a fourth-grade education.

After attending Morehouse College (freshman year), West Virginia State University and Marshall University, Lee graduated with two degrees by the time he was 21. is was made possible by the savings of his grandmother, a live-in maid in New York who spent most of her life picking cotton and vowing that her two grandchildren would go to college.

Armed with his degrees and hoping to experience an enhanced quality of life while escaping the segregated South, he and his wife, Jeane, moved to Detroit in 1957. “He already had a job in another state but since he had an uncle he decided to ride with his friend to Detroit,” says his wife, Jeane F. Lee. “He found a job at the bank starting as a teller with a master’s degree. Since I and our baby were in West Virginia, he found an apartment in Detroit and sent for us.” at experience did not deter him.

Lee landed his rst job at the National Bank of Detroit (NBD) — now, Chase Bank. While others with his pedigree would have been hired as a management trainee, he wasn’t. As a bank teller, he was placed on the front lines because he was a light-skinned Black, who was perceived to be non-threatening to caucasians as they were depositing and withdrawing their money.

In fact, it drove him to drive change. He was credited as the rst Black banker to take a managerial role at the National Bank of Detroit in 1966, and in that capacity he used it as an opportunity to bring more Blacks in as employees and managers, while extending commercial loans to minority businesses.

“After starting as a teller at a bank with a master’s degree, he felt it was not right,” Jeane Lee said. “ e white population were able to join training programs and move up to assistant manager. African Americans were not given the opportunity. erefore, Aubrey had to work very hard to move up at the bank.”

And while moving up, he reached back to bring others.

For example, he hired a young Detroit Piston and future Hall-of-Famer and Detroit mayor, Dave Bing, as part of the bank’s management trainee program. He also recruited and hired legendary bankers to Detroit and NBD, including Walt Watkins, Linda Forte, Shirley Stancato and Tyrone Davenport along with Emmett Moten, who was the city’s Development Director during Mayor Coleman A. Young’s administration.

In the early ’70s, Young requested NBD to “loan” Lee to the city for a year to assist in developing economic de- velopment strategies focused on attracting investment dollars downtown. As a result, the foundation was laid for the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation.

In 1976, Lee, along with other Detroit bankers, started the Urban Bankers Forum (now, Urban Financial Services Coalition, or UFSC) in his Northwest Detroit home where bankers would convene and discuss challenges for Black bankers while identifying opportunities for up-and-coming bankers interested in the industry.

By 1980, he became chairman, president and CEO of NBD Troy Bank, a division of NBD, and president of the Troy Chamber of Commerce, later serving in corporate senior vice president roles. e UFSC — Detroit Chapter now o ers the Dr. Aubrey W. Lee, Sr. Scholarship Award by granting scholarships to minority students in the state

And when he retired in 1999, he’d climbed every rung on the ladder and had risen to senior vice president and head of the Municipal Banking Group, just after NBD had morphed into Bank One.

Today, Lee’s legacy continues to live on. Community and education were very important to him.

In 2014, he was bestowed an honorary Doctor of Law by Walsh College.