ROY S. LEE, whose remarkable life led him from wartime China and Taiwan to Montreal, London, and New York, died on July 31, 2026, at the age of 88 in Fairfield County, Connecticut, following a stroke. His family was by his side.

    Born in China in 1938, Roy's early years were shaped by his parents' work, as they established hospitals and clinics to bring modern medical care to remote communities across China. After the family relocated to Taiwan in 1949, his father went on to create the inaugural program in Anesthesiology at National Taiwan University Hospital, and his mother served as Head of Obstetrical Nursing.

    Roy earned an LL.B. from National Taiwan University, an LL.M. from McGill University in Montreal, and a Ph.D. from the University of London. It was in London that he met Vera Craddock and managed to persuade her, first to edit his 400-page doctoral thesis on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and eventually, to cross the Atlantic with him to begin a new chapter in New York, where he joined the Human Rights Division of the United Nations in 1967.

    Roy dedicated his professional life to the development of the laws and institutions through which nations work together. During more than three decades at the United Nations, his work spanned human rights, the law of the sea, and the peaceful settlement of international disputes. In 1998, he served as Executive Secretary of the diplomatic conference that established the International Criminal Court. His scholarship paralleled his career, including influential work on space law in the 1970s; the legal regime governing deep seabed mineral resources in the 1980s; and The International Criminal Court: The Making of the Rome Statute, the definitive account of the treaty negotiations leading to the establishment of the Court.

    For nearly two decades following his retirement from the United Nations at age 60, he turned his energy to teaching at the Yale School of the Environment and at Columbia Law School, where he also chaired the Problems of Peace Seminar, one of Columbia University's oldest interdisciplinary faculty seminars, founded in 1945. He served as Permanent Observer to the United Nations for the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization and he advised the Alliance of Small Island States on issues of international environmental law. In recognition of his lifelong contributions, he was elected to the Institut de Droit International, one of the world's oldest and most distinguished societies devoted to international law.

    For all his accomplishments, Roy resisted easy labels. He moved easily across and among cultures and communities, speaking Mandarin, English, and French fluently, as well as varying levels of Japanese, Cantonese and other languages picked up across a lifetime of curiosity and travel. Along that journey, he drew people to him with his natural charm and lopsided smile, and will long be remembered by friends, colleagues, and former students around the world.

    A third-degree black belt in judo and a devoted tennis player, he won his final doubles match just four days before his death.

    He is survived by his beloved wife of 58 years, Vera Craddock-Lee; his son Simon; his daughter Justine and son-in-law Craig; and his grandchildren, Caroline and Nicholas.

Donations may be made to the Roy S. Lee Memorial Fund to establish the Sheffield Fellowship in support of exceptional Yale students developing technological solutions in the public interest, or visit www.sheffieldfellowship.com

    All services will be held privately at the request of the family.