Originally from Nebraska, she came from a family of merchants and military men. Her father ran the five-and-dime in Ansley with 5,500 residents. She graduated from University of Nebraska as an arts administrator which led her to a career with the Houston Opera and Oakland Symphony and then as a church administrator for the First Unitarian Church in San Francisco. She married in 1984 and adopted two native children from the Marshall Islands with her husband in 1985.
Wanting to make a bit more money than offered by non-profits, Melinda Lee has been a real estate agent in San Francisco since 2001 working for two brokerages. “Doing community work is in my blood, “ she says. When Nine LaDow and Roark O’Neill asked her to be a charter member of the fledgling SOMA Rotary Club, she jumped at it. Her pet projects have been the Bayview Mission, and A Woman’s Place with fellow Member Wendy Dwyer, whom she brought into the club. She is the quintessential Rotarian and glad to be a true SOMAtarian!
