CITIZEN OF THE YEAR DR. JAMES LEE

Long-Time Seguin Physician’s lifetime of care and compassion have helped shape the community as we know it

Story by Felicia Frazar

by Felicia Frazar & courtesy of Guadalupe Regional Medical Foundation

For more than 50 years, Dr. James Lee has dedicated his life to the health and wellbeing of the community’s residents.

From running a successful medical practice for more than 30 years, and serving for several years on the MHMR board to helping found the Guadalupe Regional Medical Foundation, Lee has helped shape medical care in Seguin and Guadalupe County.

It’s his continued contributions to the community that have earned him the Mary Lee Robert’s Citizen of the Year Award.

Lee’s journey into the medical field began in college at Schreiner University. Although, his chosen career path was completely opposite of medicine.

“I was going to be an engineer, but turned out I loved my sciences better than the math part,” he said. “I ended up going pre-med.”

After spending two years in Kerrville, Lee transitioned to the University of Texas - Austin for pre-med and upon graduation went to San Antonio Medical School.

After earning his medical degree, Lee did his three years of residency in Fort Worth.

The love and care Lee’s general practitioner gave him growing up inspired the doctor and gave him the foundation of how he wanted to run his own practice.

After his residency was complete, Lee looked to three small Texas towns to open up his own practice — Kerrville, New Braunfels and Seguin.

Wanting to work more with children and families, Lee chose Seguin for his practice. He also found a strong network of doctors in town.

“I was interested in pediatrics and the younger age group,” he said. “I liked Seguin because all of the doctors got along real well with each other. Plus, Pat Liberty said we had really good schools here.”

Not long after moving to Seguin in 1977, Lee joined the St. James Catholic School board, giving him glimpse into serving on boards. Lee is also a 50-year member of the Knights of Columbus and a 30-year member of the Rotary Club.

He spent 25 years on the MHMR board at the behest of Ellie Selig, who was the wife of former SMI owner Marvin Selig and chaired the board at the time.

“That was my main thing,” he said. “Now it was taken over by Bluebonnet Trails. They built a nice big building. Previously, we had to try to piecemeal that facility to try to make it something useful for MHMR clients.”

In the mid-’80s, Lee served as president of the Seguin Chamber of Commerce. It was a time when the organization was looking to help the city create economic development.

“The big thing that we did was we tried to pass a half-cent sales tax because Walmart was coming to town and so we said we needed to pass that and use that money for economic development,” he said. It did not pass.”

On the second attempt, the wording changed from half-a-cent to one-fourth of a cent for economic development and one-fourth for ad valorem, Lee said. This time, the measure passed and the city saw a change that would change the community.

“It amazed me how much money that started to roll in,” he said. “In there was the start of the economic development board as a separate entity. We saw in the future that we were trying to recruit that industry to come to

Seguin. We really needed to have some money to develop that.”

Lee was appointed to the hospital board 30 years ago and has served as chairman for the past 10 years. He is the only member of the seven-person board who was appointed by the city and county.

“The hospital is so important for the community to have. We’re one of the few five-star hospitals in the state of Texas — I think there are 31 and we’re one of them,” he said.

While serving the hospital board and running his family medicine practice, Lee helped found the Guadalupe Regional Medical Foundation — an organization that supports Guadalupe Regional Medical Center’s work in the community.

One of the programs Lee is proud of is the patient prescription program that helps community members receive much-needed medication.

“There were so many people that couldn’t afford medicine,” he said. “It has been a tremendous help. It’s been millions of dollars in medication for people who couldn’t afford them.”

Throughout the years, donations to the foundation have led to the purchase of equipment that is imperative for hospitals to help their patients.

“Through the foundation, the hospital has new equipment that hospital’s in San Antonio don’t have like a 3D X-ray scanner,” he said. “It’s very rare to have something like that.”

While Lee is proud of his work in the community, he’s more proud of his family — wife, four daughters and 10 grandchildren. He admitted his volunteer work wouldn’t be possible without his wife Janice’s support.

All of his family members are involved in their communities, which doesn’t have to take much, Lee said.

“There are a ton of places to volunteer, you don’t have to wait to retire,” he said. “You can start volunteering earlier. I would encourage people to volunteer. It is very satisfying.”