Lee, David Y.S., Reverend, 1919-1998

Reverend David Y.S. Lee was born LEE Yiu Shan in 1919 in the Sunwui county of Guangdong province in China. He received his religious education at Guangdong Union Theological Seminary, then at Emmanuel College in Toronto, graduating in 1950 as an ordained minister. Lee arrived in Canada in 1947 as a missionary. Toronto was home for him and his wife, Esther Kuo Wah Lee (nee Shiu), and their three children: Mary-Esther, John David, and Peter Daniel.

Lee was a member of Toronto’s Chinese United Church that had its beginnings in 1918. The church underwent several moves and name changes before settling at a more permanent location in Chinatown. Reverend Lee was named its Minister in 1950 when the church operated as the Bay Street Chinese Church, located at Bay and Elm streets. He shepherded the church through its last name change in 1954 to Chinese United Church, when it moved into its new property at 92 Chestnut Street.

For over two decades, Reverend Lee ministered over its congregation which spanned more than a hundred small communities in the province. Church membership and Lee’s community leadership provided Chinese Canadians with important spiritual guidance, social structure and upward mobility in white society following repeal of the Chinese Immigration (Exclusion) Act. Lee was also a member of the Chinese Ministry in Southern Ontario and of Timothy Eaton Memorial Church. He died in Toronto in 1998.