Birth date: Dec 21, 1978 Death date: Feb 23, 2025
Kyle Brandon Lee, age 46, passed away unexpectedly on February 23, 2025, in Garland, TX. Born on December 21, 1978, in Austin, TX to Steven and Neva (Nichols) Lee, Kyle grew up in Texas and graduated from Rockwall High School. He Read Obituary
My favorite memories of Kyle involve his tireless willingness to help others, and his deep intellectual curiosity. Even casual requests were met with immediate efforts by Kyle to provide his best all while asking about what I was reading/teaching or any great films I had watched lately. He will be be deeply missed.
“Science explains the world, but only Art can reconcile us to it.” — Stanislaw Lem, “King Globares and the Sages”
As a student at Ursuline Academy, I took three classes taught by Mr. Lee– he was the best teacher I have ever had. Every day in the classroom, his passion for writing and literature shone through. This passion created an environment in the classroom of openness, acceptance, and persistent encouragement for every student. Mr. Lee wasn’t afraid to think outside the box. In his classes, we toured the school for ghosts around Halloween, played writing games like Exquisite Corpse, and even worked in groups to come up with a role-playing game around gothic literature and film figures. I will always remember his own work, which he shared generously with us– especially his reading of his Christmas poem before we left for break, complete with a Matthew McConaughey impression. What I will always remember most is his encouragement of my writing. The creative writing program that he really spear-headed at Ursuline Academy was so important for me. Mr. Lee allowed me to explore my interests in writing and always took those ideas seriously. which made me excited to come to him with a new idea or rough draft. On the last day of my senior year, at our final class with Mr. Lee, we spoke after class, and he encouraged me to continue writing. I was a part of Ursuline’s first Creative Writing II class, which was started after I and a few other students who had loved his first Creative Writing course showed interest in a second. He thanked me for being one of the students to continue in the sequence and make the second class possible. I remember that he started off his words with, “And Scarecrow, I think I’ll miss you most of all.” I went from being relatively cool about ending high school to crying in about thirty seconds flat. I knew that I would miss his class and his inimitable presence in the classroom. He told my parents at my graduation that if any teacher said I wasn’t a good writer, that they should contact him so he could tell them off– and then reiterated that he was serious. After I started college, he kept in contact, and it was so good to hear from him. I still study English in college and write creatively, largely due to the passion for it that he instilled in me.
Mr. Lee meant so much in my life. Without him, I wouldn’t be who I am today. I am very sorry to hear of his loss, and I am praying for his family members and friends.
Kyle was one of the best things that ever happened to my husband, James, and just hearing James relive all their stories of friendship and shenanigans brings a smile to my face.
To Lorri, Moira, The lee and Bush family,
I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Kyle, I pray that God , Will wrap his arms around you, And wipe away the tears. God needed a Writer, So he summoned kyle. Words can not expressed how sad i am Knowing my sweet, kind lorri and moira will no longer be able to laugh with Kyle. YOU MUST HOLD TO ALL THE MEMORIES YOU MADE AS A FAMILY. Please take out the ALbums, AND REMEMBER THE GOOD, AND FUN TIMES. Kyle is with you.............. I LOVE EACH OF YOU.
Love Aunt Ida Jones and Family
Piscataway , New Jersey
I have so many memories of Kyle! He made every day brighter with his wit. I was always impressed with his ability to recall so many details. I will be forever grateful for all his invaluable help and friendship. One favorite memory was making tech how-to videos for incoming students - short clip attached featuring a toy "magic wand" we picked up at Mr. Gatti's.
-Kathy Valenzuela
My name is Sara and Mr. Lee was my creative writing teacher during my Junior year of high school at Ursuline Academy of Dallas. I am devastated about this news.
Our class was a small class with only 6 students. The 7 of us became a little creative writing family in a way. I always looked forward to coming to class because I knew (i think all of us knew) that it was a safe space where we could vent and talk about random things going on in our lives. Mr. Lee genuinely was interested in what we had to say and he tried to guide us like a friend would. He was very encouraging and supportive.
One of my favorite things about Mr. Lee was how funny he was. He was always giggling and it wasn’t too hard to get him to laugh. He liked to pause and show us something funny or tell jokes. I LOVED it when he told stories- some of my favorites were the theories about Ursuline being haunted. I am more reserved, but Mr. Lee made me feel comfortable being weird in class which says a lot. His positive attitude reflected onto me and I’m sure the other students felt the same way.
Our class mascot was a specific stuffed animal of a bull- it was a brown bull by the brand “Squishmallow”. The stuffed animal being the class mascot was a little inside joke we had going on in the class. One of my favorite memories with our class was our last class. A few weeks before, Mr. Lee had us all participate in a friendly writing competition and we all voted on whose story we liked best. When the day of our last class came, Mr. Lee took us to the Ursuline theatre and announced the winners. I came in second place and he gave me a mini sized stuffed animal of our class mascot. He gave the first place winner a jumbo size of the same stuffed animal. We had no idea anyone was getting prizes, but it was a huge coincidence because our class had actually talked about secretory surprising Mr. Lee with the same exact stuffed animal in honor of our class and our last day together. After Mr. Lee handed out the prizes and gave a speech to us, the look on his face was pure shock and excitement when we saw that we got him the same exact stuffed animal of our class mascot. He had also given all of us matching notebooks, signed copies of Screaming Frogs in Neon, and some other fun trinkets and notes.
When I graduated in May of 2024, it had been over a year since our last class and Mr. Lee even sent me and the other girls a really thoughtful letter congratulating us and encouraging us to continue our journey with poetry and story writing. Mr lee was always so excited to read our work. We loved hearing him talk about his own projects that he was working on and how he was working towards getting some of him poems into a book. Mr. Lee was talented, creative, funny, and an amazing teacher. I’m so glad that I was able to get to know him during the time that he was my teacher.
I have been thinking about this a lot and I will be praying for Mr. Lee’s family and friends. ❤️
My name is Sara and Mr. Lee was my creative writing teacher my Junior year of high school at Ursuline Academy.
Hearing this news has devastated me. I really loved that class and always looked forward to it. There were only 6 girls in the class so the 7 of us became like a little creative writing family.
Mr. Lee was extremely kind and thoughtful. All of us knew that his class was a safe space. We vented and complained about the things going on in our lives and Mr. Lee genuinely cared and wanted to listen. He was always making funny jokes and telling stories- I was always very interested in the stories he told about Ursuline and the rumors of the school being haunted. He truly went out of his way to form a bond with each of us and to make class enjoyable.
Mr. Lee was very enthusiastic about creative writing and poetry. He was always so excited to read the work that we had come up with in his class. He was extremely creative and supportive of all of his students. I loved hearing him talk about what he was currently working on and how he was trying to get some of his pieces into books.
Our class mascot was a specific stuffed animal of a brown bull. It was kind of an inside joke we had going on in our class. One of my best memories with Mr. Lee and this class was one of our last classes. Mr. Lee had us do a friendly writing competition with each other and we would all vote and then the next week it would be announced. When that day came, Mr. Lee took us to the Ursuline theatre and he announced the winners. I came in second place and he had given me a small stuffed animal of our mascot as a prize. He had given the first place winner the jumbo size of the same stuffed animal! We had no idea anyone would be getting prizes. It was a huge coincidence because our class had actually agreed to get him a jumbo size of the SAME stuffed animal in honor of our last class together. The look on his face was priceless after he gave us our prizes and realized we had gotten him the same exact thing! He had also given all of us matching leather journals and some fun trinkets and letters.
When a year passed by and I graduated high school in May of 2024, he even remembered to send each of us a very thoughtful letter congratulating us. Mr. Lee was a nice friend and an awesome teacher and I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to learn from him. I have been thinking about this a lot and I will be praying for Mr. Lee’s family and friends.
The world is a poorer place without you, Kyle. You were always funny, creative and just a great guy to be around. Rest in peace.
Kyle was a great guy. He was funny, creative and just a joy to be around. The world is a lot poorer without him.
Mr. Lee was truly the best teacher and mentor anyone could have. He always cared about his students well being and helping us become the best writers we could be. I’ve never experienced a teacher who cared for his students as much as Mr. Lee did. I find myself still talking about him and his class Reading in the Dark regularly and how much I loved it and the healthy atmosphere he created in the classroom. My thoughts and prayers are with all of his loved ones at this time.
