Ted Lee, casino owner, benefactor of UNLV, dies
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Ted Lee and his family have had their hands in many types of businesses throughout Southern Nevada, from real estate to the Eureka Casinos brand, hotels, restaurants and more.
None of that would have been possible, Lee had said many times, had it not been for his education — degrees from Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley.
That helps explain why Lee and his wife, Doris, were so passionate about creating a world-class business school at UNLV. In 2011, it was renamed the Lee Business School after the Lees made a historic $15 million donation to enhance the college.
Lee died Tuesday, UNLV officials announced. He was 88.
“The Lee Business School is the culmination of everything we’ve wanted to do,” Ted Lee said in 2011. “My father used to say education is the best investment a person could have because no one could steal it from you and you can’t lose it. We’ve made this gift as a beginning — the possibilities for UNLV are immense.”
The bulk of the donation — $10 million — was used to fund 10 endowed professorships, while $2.5 million went toward a scholarship program and $2.5 million for a lecture series.
“He believed in the power of higher education to make a difference in individual lives and in communities,” UNLV officials said in a statement. “It’s with that spirit that he gave so much to UNLV, our students, our faculty and our programs.”
Lee learned how to operate a business at a young age by working alongside his father at the family’s meat market in Stockton, Calif.
After graduating from Harvard, Lee was drafted into the U.S. Army and worked inspecting quartermaster depots and facilities throughout France and Germany. He received a commendation for coming up with a system to keep better track of supplies, according to UNLV archives.
Lee went on to earn a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and practiced law before returning to the university for his MBA, specializing in real estate and planning, according to UNLV.
That led him into real estate, where he is credited with building nonprofit housing projects in minority communities in Northern California.
Lee met his future wife through real estate development in the San Francisco area, and they were married in 1969.
That’s about the time the Lee family began investing in Las Vegas, starting when Doris’ father opened a National Dollar Store at what is now Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street.
“Everybody was wondering what the future of Las Vegas would be like,” Ted Lee told UNLV. “We didn’t have very much money, but we put what we had into Las Vegas real estate because of the city’s potential for growth.”
Lee got into gaming in the 1990s by acquiring Friendly Fergie’s Casino on Sahara Avenue, just east of the Strip. Soon, the Eureka Casinos brand was born, eventually stretching to Mesquite with the Eureka Casino Resort.
“Ted Lee represented the best of the Vegas business community,” Mary Beth Sewald, president and CEO of the Vegas Chamber, said in a statement. “He invested greatly in the future of our business community with the generous philanthropic gifts he and his wife, Doris, made to the Lee Business School at UNLV.The investments he, Doris and the entire Lee family have made in the Lee Business School will spark innovation and entrepreneurism in Southern Nevada and help our region grow and thrive.”
In a Twitter message, Gov. Steve Sisolak said he and his wife, Kathy, “join in mourning the loss of Ted Lee. He did so much for our community and will be missed. Our prayers are with his family.”
Ted Lee was preceded in death by his wife in 2018. Survivors include two sons, Greg and Ernest, who are continuing the family’s spirit of supporting the business school at UNLV.
In April 2020, a month into the coronavirus pandemic, the Lee Family Foundation created the Lee School Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, awarding investments totaling $1 million to develop innovations to help the gaming industry respond to the health crisis.
Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
