Robert Emmett Lee was born in Chicago on March 31, 1912, the son of Delia and Patrick Lee. Perhaps influenced by the fact that his father was a policeman, after graduation from DePaul University (1935) Robert Lee also pursued a career in criminal justice by becoming a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. From 1939 to 1947 he served as the fiscal assistant to J. Edgar Hoover. In 1947 the FBI loaned his services to the House Appropriations Committee because of his well-known budget cutting ability. Although still technically on loan, in 1950 Lee became director of the committee's surveys and investigations staff.
In 1953 Lee was appointed to the Federal Communications Commission by President Eisenhower. He was reappointed to three more terms by Presidents Eisenhower, Johnson, and Nixon, eventually becoming the longest serving member of any federal regulatory commission.
Robert E. Lee served as vice chairman of the FCC and a member of its telephone and telegraph committee. During the early months of 1981 he was the acting chairman. Throughout his long career Lee was well known for his support of UHF, which he saw as a way of bringing expanded programming to the public. He organized and chaired the FCC's Committee for the Full Development of All-Channel Television and in subsequent years worked hard to make UHF a viable television service. Lee was also active in support of educational broadcasting and FM radio.
Lee retired from the Commission in 1981. In 1984 he became president of the Broadcast Pioneers Educational Fund.
A devout Catholic, Robert E. Lee was a member of the Cardinal's Committee to the Laity in Washington and a founder of the Catholic Apostolate of Mass Media. He received honorary degrees from Notre Dame and St. John's University.
