Charles Goodall Lee
Dr. Charles Goodall Lee (1881 – 1973) was an American dentist, and the first licensed Chinese American dentist in California.[1] Lee financed the building of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance lodge in Oakland, California.
Lee graduated from University of the Pacific.
Dr. Lee was born in 1881 in San Francisco, California to Lee Tong Hay, a lay leader of the forming Chinese Methodist Church[2] associated with Rev. Dr. Otis Gibson's missions that would become the Chinese Community United Methodist Church.[3]
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake Dr. Lee relocated to San Jose, California then settling in Oakland becoming Oakland Chinatown's first dentist. His practice continued till his retirement in 1940. He was an active participant in civil affairs founding Oakland's Chinese American Citizens Alliance in 1912. Lee was also a lay leader of the Chinese Community Methodist Church of Oakland, a member of the Oakland Chinese Center and a member of the Lee Family Benevolent Association.
He was married to Clara Elizabeth Chan who was the first Chinese American woman to register to vote in the United States.
He is interred in Oakland.
References
- Yung, Judy (1995). "Unbound Feet, A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco". University of California Press
- Armentrout, Eve and Ma, Jeong Huei (1982). "The Chinese of Oakland, Unsung Builders".
- Wong, William (2004). "Images of America, Oakland's Chinatown". Arcadia Press.