OTTAWA — Leonard Lee, founder of Lee Valley Tools, has died at the age of 77. The Wadena, Sask.-born Lee started Lee Valley in 1978 after a career with the Canadian Foreign Service, the Canadian Consumer Council, and the National Dairy Council. Raised in a log cabin with dirt floors and neither electricity nor indoor plumbing, Lee studied civil engineering at the Royal Military College, ultimately graduating in economics at Queen’s University. Known for his integrity and fair business dealings, Lee had a “refreshing approach to business, which is do right by people [and] not to make money at all costs,” Jason Tasse, Lee Valley’s chief of operations, told the CBC. Lee’s son Robin said his father sought a life of entrepreneurship as a change from the bureaucracy of the civil service.
The company began as mail order-based operation, and its attractive catalogues remained popular long after it expanded to retail locations. In addition to Lee Valley, Lee was also the founder of medical tools developer Canica Design and Algrove Publishing, which specializes in reprints of out-of-print technical books. Appointed to the Order of Canada with the rank of Member in 2003, Lee was suffering from vascular dementia in his final years and, according to Robin Lee, his condition had begun to deteriorate rapidly in the past months.
