H. Rex Lee

It was Carver who suggested a method of selecting the next Governor of American Samoa that avoided accusations of political bias. A panel of three, including Lee, was chosen. Delma H. Nucker was vetoed as a suggestion for being "too Eisenhower", Hillary A. Tolson, the deputy director of the Park Service, turned it down, and it was only after "much arm twisting" that Lee accepted the role.[8] Lee's first term as governor was from May 24, 1961, to July 31, 1967. Concurrently in 1961, US Air Force Major Eric J. Scanlan, a native Samoan, was appointed as government secretary, a role similar to lieutenant governor.[8] Owen Aspinall, the deputy district attorney of Mesa County, Colorado, and son of Lee's friend Wayne Aspinall, was appointed as Lee's attorney general of American Samoa. By 1963, Aspinall had replaced Scanlan as government secretary, and later succeeded Lee as governor.[9]

Stewart Udall, the United States Secretary of the Interior, said that Lee was appointed as Governor due to his "unique experience and long familiarity in helping to solve" socio-economic problems similar to the ones American Samoa faced. On June 21, 1963, Paramount Chief Tuli Le’iato of Faga’itua was sworn in and installed as the first Secretary of Samoan Affairs by Lee.[3][10] Under Lee, there were a number of new efforts and programs that took place. He created a cooperative where local Samoans had a share in a new hotel, developed a fishing enterprise that employed local Samoans, increased tourism, by establishing a new airport, harbor facilities, roads and luxury hotels, and also cleaned up the island.[2] Most notably, Lee also launched an educational TV business which was entirely his own conception and execution. Carver described it as "the kind of thing which only Rex Lee could have done".[11][12]

The program was funded by $15 million that Michael J. Kirwan, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee for Public Works, had authorized. The main television station that was built was named the Michael J. Kirwan Educational Television Center in his honor.[13] George P. Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics at the time, expressed some concerns with the program. He said that "they had a hard time getting teachers as it is very expensive to bring teachers from the mainland to Samoa, and having them out in the small communities living with the natives was pretty hard for them". He noted, however, that the program "became highly successful".[9]

Lee received the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service from Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966 who also credited him with turning American Samoa from a "Pacific Slum" to a "showplace for progress".[4][14] Udall later said that Lee "turned out to be one of our very best appointments, in my view. He was a bit authoritarian, but I think he did a very good job at Samoa and was really our star performer".[15] He was the last non-elected governor of the territory.[2] He was instrumental in successfully bringing American Samoa's plight to the attention of Congress, and in reforming the infrastructure and educational system.[16]

After his term ended in 1967, Lee became the assistant administrator of the US foreign aid program of the United States Department of State. Just over a year later, President Johnson appointed Lee to a seven-year term as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which began on October 28, 1968. He served as the commission's education commissioner and was also a member of the Telephone and Telegraph Committee. His main focus was exploiting the full potential of telecommunications to improve the educational system in the United States. He has been characterized as a "quiet member" of the FCC who was "rarely flamboyant or controversial".[17] During his time on the commission, he frequently joined Nicholas Johnson in voting against station purchases in order to avoid media concentration. Alongside Johnson, he was considered on the "liberal wing" of the FCC by The New York Times. He retired 18 months before his term expired on December 31, 1973, from "a desire to retire from career service to try something new." His resignation followed a week after Johnson's.[18]

Lee became a visiting professor at San Diego State University following his retirement from the FCC. In 1975, he became founding chairman of the Public Service Satellite Consortium. In his retirement, he helped to establish educational television in South America. On May 28, 1977, Lee was re-appointed as Governor of American Samoa on an interim basis until the first elected governor, Peter Tali Coleman, assumed office in January 1978.[19][20]

Lee's name is memorialized at the Governor H. Rex Lee Auditorium.[21]