Lees invest in future pastors through Southwestern Seminary, his first home

Editor’s Note: The following article originally appeared in the spring 2026 issue of Southwestern News.

When Wayne Lee considers his life and the many places he lived, he says it always led back to the Southwestern Seminary campus where he grew up.

“That nine square blocks where the campus is was my playground growing up,” Lee says.

His father studied at the seminary and moved the family there when Lee was two years. He recalls playing on the grounds before buildings such as the Carroll Memorial Building were constructed.

While living in a home across from Cowden Hall, Lee says he attended a preschool held in the Barnard Hall basement and grew up knowing the families of seminary leaders such as William Fleming and James Price, whose names are memorialized on campus buildings.

“When I get within a block of the seminary campus, I’m home,” Lee says.

After his father graduated in 1951, when Lee was 9 years, his family spent time in Seattle where his father planted a church before returning to Stanley Avenue on campus while his father served in Korea as an army chaplain during the Korean War. They then lived in Colorado, Missouri, and New Mexico as Lee’s father planted and pastored churches.

It was while living in Albuquerque that Lee says he “met this little, brown-eyed girl in Sunday School.” In 1963, Lee and Berna Dean were married, and Lee knew it was time to make their way back to North Texas.

“My fondest memories of growing up was always the campus of Southwestern,” Lee says, adding even when he was away, he always made a point to visit the campus to see the friends he grew up with there. “… My entire life, I’ve been connected to Southwestern. And again, when I pull up on the corner of Gambrell and James, to me, I’m coming home.”

Lee and Berna Dean did return, this time to the Southlake area.

“I was determined I was going to raise my family in or near Fort Worth, because that was home.” Lee says.

Lee reconnected with close friends such as the O’Neal family, who helped construct some of the homes owned by the seminary and later generations continued to support and partner with the seminary as donors. Lee started a real estate development business with Bob Mallory, who had married one of the O’Neals, and would stay in the business for 50 years.

The Lees joined First Baptist Church of Euless, pastored by Southwesterner Jimmy Draper who would later be president of the Southern Baptist Convention and president of Lifeway Christian Resources. There Lee was ordained as a deacon and served in numerous roles, including chairman of the deacons, building committee chairman, missions director, and Sunday School teacher. Lee also served as a member of Southwestern’s advisory council and has worked closely with Guidestone and the Mission Dignity initiative that provides support for retired pastors and their families.

With the construction of the Riley Center, Lee’s partnership with the seminary grew. His father had long since donated their family home to the seminary and it would be torn down for the construction of the new building. Lee and Berna Dean funded multiple rooms in the center, including one they named in honor of Lee’s father.

Lee also stayed involved in the Southern Baptist Convention as a whole, serving as chairman of the convention’s Committee on Nominations.

On March 12, Lee and Berna Dean were named the recipients of the B. H. Carroll Award, which recognizes an honoree actively engaged in the life and ministry of the seminary who has given sacrificially to the seminary.

“They’ve been terrific friends of Southwestern Seminary for many, many years,” President David S. Dockery said during the awards event, which the Lees were not able to attend due to medical reasons. “… We treasure their friendship and count them as important members of the Southwestern community.”

Lee says he was “embarrassed” that they were selected, since he just considers their support of the seminary as a natural reaction to his upbringing.

“I’m just very blessed by the Lord, and I’ve been blessed to be raised—literally raised on the campus—among some of the greatest men,” Lee says.

Lee says he prays everyone would consider supporting Southwestern, “because every dollar will be well spent and it’ll certainly further the Kingdom.”

“My feeling is that the great unsung heroes of the world” are Southern Baptist pastors whose names will never be known, Lee says. “That pastor these churches, day in, day out, week in, week out, in little communities that, again, nobody will ever know their names. And so, if you want to know why I support seminaries, it’s because without seminaries, we wouldn’t have those unsung heroes. … There’s always going to be another Jimmy Draper, another George W. Truett, another O. S. Hawkins, or so on and so forth. But the great heroes are the unsung heroes. It’s those that are going to be out there on very little pay, very little recognition.”