SALT LAKE CITY, December 30, 2019
Robert Charles Lee
The life of Robert Charles Lee has been defined by risk. Some risks, such as his impoverished childhood in the American South of the 50s and 60s, were involuntary. Other risks, such as his recreational drug use, were voluntary. In a memoir to be published by E.L. Marker,™ the reader sees how these risks developed in Lee a personal calculus for measuring, with uncanny accuracy, the reward versus cost of stepping through any given door. Not coincidentally perhaps, Lee parlayed this calculus into a career and became a risk scientist.
Lee’s life of risk management began as a child, exploring the hardwood forest behind his North Carolina home. In bare legs and feet he encountered copperhead snakes, hornets, and poison ivy. As he grew older, his adventures broadened to include mountain climbing across the country and risky manual labor in remote areas of Alaska. Lee shares how felt like an outsider wherever he went and initially struggled to form meaningful relationships with others. Consequently, he faced most of his risks on his own.
In a distinctive voice that is both storyteller and professor and utterly free of artifice, Lee shares his extraordinary life from his unique perspective on risk. A recurring theme of his is the extent to which information can distort a person’s perception of risk. He tells of people who consider him foolish for rock climbing but think nothing of hiking into the backcountry without a first aid kit, or bringing along a 100 lb. dog they could never hope to carry out if it were seriously injured.
Lee’s memoir tells more than his story. It tells the story of how all of us, consciously or unconsciously, are risk managers. From our environment, to politics, to our families, every risk touches every aspect of our lives. To Lee, risk is not something that can be avoided, but it can be managed, even embraced.
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Robert Charles Lee is a retired risk scientist with over twenty-five years of academic and applied risk analysis, decision analysis, and risk management experience. He has authored over one hundred peer-reviewed scientific papers, as well as dozens of technical reports for state and national agencies. He is currently a Clinical Lecturer in the University of New Mexico Department of Emergency Medicine. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife Dr. Linda Cook and dogs Jasper and Lindo. Together they have climbed hundreds of technical and non-technical mountain, rock, ice, and canyon routes, and hiked thousands of miles in several countries. Lee is also a musician who has recorded more than thirteen hundred musical pieces to date.
Lee was inspired to write his memoir after a talk he gave his company on his relationship with risk. Never one to face risk unprepared, Lee took his time researching publishing houses and the submissions process. This led him to WiDo Publishing™ where their quick communication and professionalism sealed the deal. For more information visit robertcharleslee.com.