Lee attended Fargo College from 1920 to 1922 and then the University of Minnesota, where he graduated with B.A. in 1924. From 1924 to 1927 he was a Rhodes Scholar at St John's College, Oxford, where he graduated with A.B. in 1926. From 1927 to 1929 he was an instructor in philosophy at the University of Michigan. In 1930 he received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University, where he was an Austin Fellow from 1929 to 1930. At Harvard University he was an instructor and tutor from 1930 to 1933 and for the academic year 1934–1935. At Harvard he was also a reader (i.e. a course assistant who grades papers) for Alfred North Whitehead for the academic year 1931–1932, as well as a Harvard Milton Scholar for the academic year 1933–1934. Lee pursued postdoctoral study at the University of Kiel from 1933 to 1934 and at the University of Freiburg in the summer of 1934.[1][2] For the academic year 1940–1941, he was appointed a Guggenheim Fellow for the writing of a book on the nature of philosophical inquiry.[1]
At Oxford in the 1920s he became familiar with the German philosophical tradition as interpreted by Oxford's Hegelians. At Harvard he was influenced by the pragmatism of C. I. Lewis and the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead. For the academic year 1933–1934 Lee went with his wife Dorothy to study neo-Hegelian philosophy with Richard Kroner.[3]
From 1935 to 1938 Lee was an associate professor at Pomona College. From 1938 until his death in 1948, he was a professor of philosophy and department chair at Vassar College.[1] A sudden, unexpected heart attack caused his death.[2]
^Adams, George Plimpton (1937). "Review of Philosophical Essays for Alfred North Whitehead". The Philosophical Review. 46 (6): 672–674. doi:10.2307/2181062. JSTOR2181062.
^Sinclair Kerby-Miller Visiting Professor of Philosophy B.A., University of Oregon, 1920; A.M., Columbia University, 1921; D.Phil., 1930. Rhodes Scholar, Oxford, 1921–1924. Instructor in Philosophy, University of Oregon, 1924–1925; Instructor and Tutor, Division of philosophy at Harvard University, 1926–1929; Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Missouri, 1929–1935; Acting Associate Professor of Philosophy, Stanford University, fall quarter, 1936; Visiting Professor, Reed College, 1935–, "brief bio of Sinclair Kerby-Miller". Reed College Bulletin. 18 (1): 77. January 1939.