Charles "Charley" Hamilton Lee (February 1, 1883 – May 4, 1967) was a hydraulic engineer from Oakland. He worked all over California for the USGS and the city of Los Angeles, as well as later having a private practice in San Francisco. Of local interest, he wrote a number of papers about urban landslides in Oakland, including the one on McKillop Street (where Wood Park is now) and the one on Lerida Avenue (now Balfour Avenue), as well as consulting about building near 12th Street by Lake Merritt, on what is filled land. 1
Lee was born in Oakland in 1883 to Hamilton Lee and Genevieve Littlejohn (Lee). He graduated from UC Riverside in 1905, with a degree in Civil Engineering. His brother DeWitt L. Lee was also an engineer. In 1911 Charles Lee married Katherine Newhall (Lee) and they had one son, Charles Hamilton Lee, Jr. Katherine died in 1920; in 1921 Lee married Evelyn May Grundy (Lee), and they had two children, Allan Eustace Lee and Constance Evelyn Lee. 2
During WWI, Lee served in the Army Corps of Engineers, in the Twenty-sixth Engineers, a special service water supply regiment.
Lee was a consulting engineer on the construction of Treasure Island, and he was chief of Water Supply and Sanitation for the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island.
Links and References
- Charles H. Lee Papers, bulk 1912-1955 at UC Riverside
- Charles H. Lee on ancestry.com
