Spent Last Night With Dr. Henry Lee!!! UPDATED!!!

Spent last night with Dr. Henry Lee!  Who knew that this world-famous forensic scientist could be so FUNNY? Details to come . . .

So sorry I’ve been MIA. . . or should I say at school?  Here are the details. . .

Well, this week we found ourselves at a Chamber of Commerce Meeting where our family farm was being recognized for a “Beautification Award” for the town, which was very nice!  But, before I even knew about the award, I saw that Dr. Henry Lee was the keynote speaker and I was intriqued!

Well, this guy talked for more than an hour and had people at the edge of their seats.  I knew he was smart, that he sees details that others miss, and he’s been involved in the forensic work on some of the most notable cases around, including the Kennedy assasination, the O.J. case, and most recently, the murder of a Yale grad student, which is close to home for us.

What I didn’t know is this guy is FUNNY!  As he rattled off jokes and funny anecdotes—in between sharing slides of grizzly murder scenes (not sure how you do that!)—people were laughing out loud.

A few interesting facts about Dr. Lee:

• He’s 71, looks MUCH younger, and says he has the physical body of a 20-year-old.
• He and his wife came to the U.S. in 1965 with $50 between them and neither spoke English.
• His father died when he was 4 years old and his mother raised 14 kids alone.
• He sleeps 4 hrs. a night (a man after my own heart!)
• He speaks all over the world and has 22 honorary Doctorates, so how did our little, local Chamber of Commerce attract him?

What I like about him:

Dr. Lee, who was born in China,  raised in Taiwan, and has traveled the world,  says that the U.S.A. is “the best country in the world.”

“It’s the only place where, even if you can’t speak English, but are willing to work hard, you can be successful!”

He left the Taipei Police Dept. where he said “you just forced suspects into confessions.”  He decided to go the route of forensic scientist where you had to be objective, not subjective.

What made me laugh:

“CSI is the greatest show.  It has done a lot for crime scene investigations.  But, if we don’t have  clue by the second commercial and if  case not solved by end of  episode, we have failed!”

“CSI—every investigator has  beautiful lady riding with him.  No beautiful lady riding with me; my wife, Margaret, would beat on me!”

Person he’s most afraid of:  his mother!

As he tossed tiny badges around the room to members of the audience who named the correct case, i.e., “Woodchipper!” “O.J!”, etc. . . Dr. Lee also told about the signs of aging:

1st thing to go:  Memory

2nd:  Sight

3rd:  (I really don’t remember!  Oh, oh! Is that the first sign?)

4th: Men forget to “zip up” after leaving restroom

5th: Men forget to “zip down” when going in restroom

6th: (Can’t say; not appropriate for this here blog!)

Anyways, it was a fun night and I was happy to see that someone so smart, so hard-working, and so successful, could also be so funny and down-to-earth!

Dr. Henry Lee with his wife, Margaret