Vic Lee, KGO-TV and Bay Area fixture, retires
Veteran newsman ready to slow down after 50 years in journalism
Vic Lee, a Bay Area TV journalism fixture for nearly 50 years, has retired from KGO (ABC7).
Lee, 73, who specialized in enterprise reporting and was one of the first Asian American reporters in the nation to appear regularly on television, signed off for the last time on Wednesday.
“I still very much love the chase,” Lee said Thursday. “But after 50 years your body and your head sort of tells you that it’s time to slow down. … Besides, the (newsroom) environment has changed so much through technology and social media. And I’m still old-school.”
Born in Shanghai, China and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Lee apparently had television and journalism in his DNA. His father was a TV commentator and his mother was a Chinese opera actor. He came to the United States for college, attending San Jose State University, where he was elected student body president in 1964.
Lee launched his journalism career with an internship at the New York Times and then joined United Press International in 1969. He returned to the Bay Area in 1972 when he became a reporter for KRON-TV. He spent the past 15 years at KGO. Over his TV career, Lee established himself as one of the most respected journalists in the Bay Area.
“My career in the Bay Area took root around the time of so many major stories,” Lee said, recalling the assassinations of San Francisco mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk, the heinous crimes of the Zodiac Killer and more. “San Francisco was the greatest news city. I thought I had come to news heaven. It gave me an adrenaline rush and it has carried me through ever since.”
Lee’s reporting has received both local and national recognition. His investigative series on the hidden health hazards in Silicon Valley’s semiconductor industry earned him the George Polk Award of Journalism for best local TV reporting. A story on the exploitation of Japanese tourists in San Francisco prompted state and federal criminal investigations.
Lee has also won numerous Emmys and awards from the Associated Press, RTNDA, Society of Professional Journalists and the Asian American Journalists Association. At the New York Film Festival, his series on African famine and civil war in the 1980’s won a Gold Award for best documentary.
“I have been watching Vic Lee on television since I was a kid, And he has always been just straight forward, providing the information, giving the news and you could always trust his reporting,” said San Francisco Mayor London Breed to ABC7 News.
“This man is so well connected he has every source in San Francisco wired. He even has sources overseas,” ABC7 reporter Wayne Freedman added.
In recent years, Lee had cut back to part-time, working two days a week at KGO. Now, he said, it’s time to focus on other things.
“I’m going to sleep in. I’m going to get home at a decent time and have dinner with my wife,” he said. “I’m going to play with my grandkids and do all the things normal people do.”
Looking back, he said, “I had a great journey. No regrets. I was blessed with great opportunities and great stories.”
Though Lee covered numerous hard-hitting news events, his most memorable story might have been a piece he did on “Dusty the Klepto Cat” who became infamous in 2011 for stealing h hundreds of items from neighbors in San Mateo. The story generated more than a million hits on YouTube.
Klepto the Cat was brought into the KGO offices on Wednesday make a surprise appearance at Lee’s farewell party.