Roberta Hill Lee, counselor, teacher, student advocate, and community activist, has died at 92

Roberta Hill Lee, 92, of Cheyney, Delaware County, elementary schoolteacher and longtime guidance counselor, student advocate, community activist, and mentor, died Monday, Oct. 17, of complications from a stroke at her home.

For 35 years, from 1958 until she retired in 1993, Mrs. Lee was a fixture at Rudolph S. Walton Elementary School in North Philadelphia. She taught classes for six years, counseled countless students for more than three decades, mentored younger colleagues, and was honored by the School District of Philadelphia with its Counseling Service Award and the Dr. Ruth W. Hayre Scholarship Service Award.

The mother of six boys, Mrs. Lee knew her way around children, and a former school principal called her “a hardworking, caring, and dedicated professional” in an online tribute. Another principal and former teacher said she was “a true treasure,” and her family said in a remembrance that she influenced everyone she encountered with a “positive attitude, dry sense of humor, and her infectious can-do spirit.”

“She was honest, considerate, insanely hardworking, tough, strong, funny, self-deprecating, and smart as a whip to the very end,” her family said.

Outside of school, Mrs. Lee and her husband, dentist Reginald S. Lee, became a local power couple who worked hard to improve their West Philadelphia neighborhood. They volunteered to assist the elderly, championed businesses and programs that expanded health care options for the underserved, and continually sought new ways to guide deserving students through high school and college. One friend said people considered the Lees as neighborhood “royalty.”

Focused and direct, good-natured and empathetic, Mrs. Lee was adept at one-on-one counseling with young people and mentored anyone who asked even after she retired. She engaged with parents and academic decision-makers, and traveled to Harrisburg to lobby state officials for better educational opportunities for Philadelphia students. Her friends and colleagues said: “You always knew exactly where Bobbie stood on any issue because she would tell you.”

She was a member and active on boards and committees of many organizations, including the NAACP, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, Philadelphia Public School Retired Employees Association, and Pennsylvania Association of School Retirees. She was the longtime recording secretary for the alumni association’s local chapter from West Virginia State University, her husband’s alma mater, and, despite not attending the school, earned its prestigious Glover L. Smiley 110% Award for outstanding service.

She also received commendations from school principals and colleagues, and citations from the Philadelphia City Council and the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for her work in school and the community. “The feeling that Mrs. Lee was an angel on Earth was unanimous,” her family said.

Born Feb. 2, 1930, in Philadelphia, Roberta Elizabeth Hill grew up in Darby and graduated from Darby High School in 1948. She earned a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees at West Chester State College, now West Chester University, in education and counseling, and, ever the guidance counselor, made sure that all of her sons graduated from college.

She met her husband while working as a waitress in Atlantic City, and they married in 1953. She told her family when she was young that she wanted to have six sons. And, even though a doctor said she was unlikely to have any children, she achieved her goal with Reginald Jr., Geoffrey, Nathaniel, Jonathan, Steven and Edgar.

The family lived in Tennessee and Delaware for a few years before settling in West Philadelphia in 1956. Her husband died in 2017.

Away from school, Mrs. Lee enjoyed bus trips and cruising on ships with her husband. She rooted for all the local sports teams, liked to cook, and, according to her family, “loved if anyone else would do the cleaning up.” Thursday night was usually hoagie night in her house, and that included hours of binge-watching her favorite TV show, The Big Bang Theory.

She taught folks in West Chester to knit at the Charles A. Melton Arts and Education Center, and the Sankofa Academy Charter School. A member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority for more than 65 years, she delighted in initiating young members and served as a leader in many of the group’s activities.

Her friends said they drew strength from her energy. “I feel like you recharge my heart and my soul,” one said in a tribute.

The sky above Mrs. Lee’s longtime home turned scarlet at sunset just as she died, said those who were with her that day. It was a sign, they said, that all was well. “She died as she lived,” the family said, “with honesty, strength, and grace, and an unending concern for the welfare of not just her beloved friends but everyone.”

In addition to her sons, Mrs. Lee is survived by two grandchildren and other relatives. Three sisters died earlier.

No services were held at her request. She is to be interred at Baltimore National Cemetery in Maryland next to her husband.

Donations in her name may be made to the West Virginia State University Alumni Association, Philadelphia/Delaware Valley Chapter Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 148, Lawnside, N.J. 08045.