Beaufort County lost a passionate educator and advocate on July 7 with the passing of Delores Lee.

The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners had recently appointed Lee to join the Beaufort County Community College Board of Trustees. She had previously served on the board from 2009-2013. Lee taught adult basic education at BCCC for 17 years. Members of the BCCC community shared their admiration of the lifelong advocate for public education.

“Delores was a gentle, but courageous person, blessed with magnetism of friendliness and love. She knew who she was as a teacher, a leader and community-involved personality,” Betty Randolph said.

Randolph is the outgoing vice chair of the BCCC Board of Trustees and had served alongside Lee during her initial tenure.

A product of P.S. Jones High School, she earned a bachelor’s degree in education from North Carolina Central University in Durham. She went on to earn a master’s in education from East Carolina University. She began teaching at Eastern Elementary in 1972 and made a 33-year career of it. After leaving Eastern Elementary, she stayed on with the school system as a homebound tutor. Lee began teaching adult basic education concurrently in 1984 at BCCC and did so until 2001.

She had served as the president of the Beaufort County National Teachers’ Association, the Retired School Personnel Committee, Beaufort County Democratic Women and the NAACP.

“Her dedication was clear,” said Dr. Rev. Robert Cayton, the current chair of the BCCC Board of Trustees who also served with Lee. “She spent a great deal of time preparing. She spent time on campus and made decisions based on solid facts so that every decision she made was for the good of the students and the benefit of the college.”

Lee was also raised with a deep faith in Christian values. She grew up in the Backswamp Church of Christ and later joined the St. John Church of Christ in 1988.

Cayton celebrated her as “one fine human being.” He went on to say, “Her faith in Christ was evident in the way she lived and interacted with others.”

“When we began our first four years of service on the BCCC Board of Trustees, we were assured that the role would be one where every opportunity for service would find us actively engaged. We did so much wish to make a difference. We became friends,” Randolph said.

The BCCC community extends its deepest condolences to Lee’s daughters, Deirdre and Daryn Lee, and grandchildren, Jackson and Cadence Grier, for the loss of this beautiful life.