Joe’s father Henry was born in Pittsburgh in 1926. Joe’s grandpa owned a grocery store and a restaurant with a ballroom. The Lee family was regarded as a wealthy merchant. The whole family moved back to China during the Great Depression. Henry got married in 1944. Joe was born in 1945. A year later, Henry returned to the US to work for his oldest sister in the grocery store in Chinatown, Chicago. He hoped to earn enough money to support his family. In 1949, Mao’s Communist Party took total control of Mainland China, confiscated the family’s lands and valuables and left very little for Joe and his mother to live by. Joe’s mother was very brave. She took Joe out of the village via a smuggler’s arrangements, they arrived in Hong Kong through Macau after a second try. Joe received his schooling there for two years. Joe’s father was able to bring them to the USA in 1954 and reunited in Wooster. Joe’s father and his brother bought a Chinese laundry in Wooster before their families arrived. After Joe arrived with his mother, his uncle and his family moved to Akron to start his own laundry business.
Sue-min lived in Taipei, with her parents and her 3 brothers and a sister. She was a middle school teacher in Taipei teaching Chinese Literature, Chinese History and Geography and serving as a guidance counselor. Sue-min’s older brothers, Wolfgang and Len, were both studying for their PhD’s in organic chemistry in Ohio. Wolfgang at Kent State University and Len at Ohio State University. Because her brothers were here, Sue-min chose to come to Ohio for her master’s degree.
Joe and Sue-min both studied at Kent State University, but by the time Sue-min arrived, Joe had already started a career at Rubbermaid in Wooster as a computer operator and later as a programming analyst. So how did they meet?
When Joe was at Kent State he met Jim, husband of Joe’s classmate Anna. Sue-min’s brother, Wolfgang is also a friend of Monica, Jim and Anna. One day Sue-min was at her brother’s house for dinner when Monica called to tell him she was going to put Joe and Sue-min together. Sue min said, “Nah, I don’t have time.” and went back to her dormitory. About half an hour later, her phone rang and a voice said “I’m Joe Lee. I’m a friend of Jim’s.” At the time, she did not know Jim’s English name, only his Chinese name. (Many Chinese adopt English names, in part, because Americans don’t pronounce their Chinese names right.) Sue-min told Joe, “I don’t know anyone named Jim.” Joe then mentioned Anna. Once Sue-min realized she did know Jim and Anna, the rest was history. Sue-min adds, “It was Monica who was trying to put the two of us together. So, we named our first daughter, Monica, and our first son, Kent.”
In 1975 Sue-min earned a Master of Education in Counseling and Student Personnel in Higher Education from Kent State. Sue-min started her job in 1976 at the Wayne County Board of MRDD, now called the Wayne County Board of Developmental Disabilities. She worked there in a management position for 31 years and retired in 2007. She never retired from what she really loves to do: cooking. She explains that in Taipei, “I was my mom’s sous chef for the feast of Guardians of the City Day, and a banquet hosting 60 guests.” After moving to Ohio, she began to excel in cuisines from around the world. She shares, “The baklava I have been making was my first entry at the Wayne County Fair Cookie Contest. It won Best of Show!” She taught cooking classes at Today’s Kitchen in downtown Wooster, starting with pastries, bread and auspicious foods for every Chinese New Year Celebration. She also taught cooking classes at 5 Buehler’s locations and the OSU-ATI, Upward Bound Summer Program. From 1991 to 2014, she and Joe owned and operated Sue Min’s Chinese Gourmet across from The OARDC. For the first 16 of those 23 years operating the restaurant, she continued to work full-time at Nick Amster Workshop for adults.
Joe loves building things and doing things with his hands. Joe said, “I can fix everything. I looked at the machines at my dad’s laundry and began figuring out all those mechanical things. As a landlord, I replaced air conditioning and all that kind of stuff. I could really save a lot of money.”
In their first encounter with Westminster, the church was not welcoming. Joe’s family doctor, Dr. Robert Wright, and his wife, Margaret, were members of Westminster and offered to arrange their wedding at Westminster. Reverend Shepherd did not want to marry them because they were not members. Instead, they were married at First Presbyterian in 1975.
Sue-min spoke of the event that changed her life the most—the birth of their first child. “When I became a parent.” I called my mother from the hospital and told her “I now realize how to be your daughter, because I am now in the position of a mother.” I understood this relationship. I still feel a boost when I talk about it.
The second time the Lee’s encountered Westminster was a charm. Sue-min chronicles,“In 1986 our kids were taking piano lessons from Ada Jacque and she invited us to Westminster for the Sunday Service. I realized then I knew a lot of people in the church, including the family of Judge Edward Eberhart.” She said, “Well, this is our home.” Sue-min and their children, Kent, Monica and and their youngest daughter, Joanna, were then baptized at Westminster by Rev. Barbara Dua. Joe was baptized and joined the church a few years later.
Sue-min served as an elder on Fellowship Committee projects, and the first cookbook, with Dorothy Iams, Candy Relle and Marlene Zimmerman. She also serves the Finance Committee third term because of her accounting skills. When they’re not in Wooster, Joe and Sue-min own a home near Kent’s house in Minneapolis. They own a vacation home in Italy and enjoy exploring Japan as part of their trips to Taiwan to see family.
