By Adam Pagnucco.
When I worked at the county council, there was no constituent who contacted me more than Bruce Hatch Lee. That’s really saying something. I worked for an at-large council member and this county is full of people who raise lots of issues. But nobody worked me harder than Bruce.
Bruce Lee. Photo credit: Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce.
A lot of the time, Bruce would send the latest office vacancy reports prepared by Costar, a real estate tracking company. Those reports usually showed us lagging much of the rest of the region, and in any case, the vacancy rates were consistently higher than they should have been. As the President and CEO of Lee Development Group, Bruce had a business interest in real estate issues. But it went a LOT further than that.
To understand Bruce, you have to understand his family. Let’s start with Francis Preston Blair Sr., a lawyer, newspaper editor and political leader who founded Silver Spring. His descendants included Montgomery Blair, a U.S. Postmaster General; Francis Preston Blair Jr., a U.S. Senator and Congressman; Blair Lee I, another U.S. Senator; E. Brooke Lee, the architect of modern Montgomery County; Blair Lee III, a Lieutenant Governor and acting Governor of Maryland; and many other notable people.
Bruce was very aware of all of this history. Yes, he was the leader of a property company established by his family. But more than that, he and his family WERE Montgomery County. If we had a royal family, they were it. Bruce saw it as his obligation to defend his home just as his many ancestors did before him.
And boy did he do that. I have known a lot of tenacious advocates over the years, but few could match Bruce. He was no mere businessman. Yes, he wanted to make money and he did, but more than that, he wanted his county and especially Silver Spring to be the best they could be. He did not mince words. He complained about inadequate economic development and crime. He fought against myopic leadership. He fought for redevelopment in Downtown Silver Spring. He pointed out how we were falling behind D.C. and Virginia and demanded that we do better.
Check out the quote. Babe Ruth said it but Bruce Lee lived it.
Most of all, he never gave up. Other business people could and did walk away from the county. That wasn’t in Bruce. This was the county that his family built and he was not going to sit back and accept its decline. So on and on he went, unflinching, unfaltering and undaunted. Bruce was the guy you would never bet against in a battle royal. He would be the last man standing due to his sheer refusal to give in.
Bruce has now passed away. It’s our turn to step up. You may not agree with Bruce on everything. But his example stands for the rest of us. If you have an idea to make this county better, if you are willing to pay the price of pushing it and if you can rally others to your flag, be like Bruce Lee and fight for it.