California’s oldest, longest-serving state worker dies after nearly 80 years on the job

California’s oldest and longest-serving state employee has died.

May Lee — who spent nearly 80 years working in civil service — died on May 26, according to the Department of General Services. She would’ve turned 103 on June 28.

“We will greatly miss her enthusiastic and cheerful disposition along with her irreplaceable institutional knowledge,” the department said in a statement.

Lee began her career in 1943 as an accountant for the California Department of Finance. Life looked different back then, she told The Bee in 2019. Air conditioning didn’t exist, and women couldn’t even wear pants to work. She was the first Chinese American hired by the department, and she served 10 different governors.

When the Department of General Services was created in 1963, Lee switched over and helped build the department from the ground up. She wrote procedures, created codes and designed systems that are still in use today. Her job involved saving the state of California millions of dollars every year through audits and analyzing budgets.

Although Lee “retired” in 1990, she continued to work as a retiree — known as a “retired annuitant” — four days a week. And, after exhausting her paid hours each fall, she’d continue to work as an unpaid volunteer, she told The Bee previously.

Lee’s family declined The Bee’s request for an interview, stating that Lee was a private person and they sought to respect her wishes.

This story was originally published June 7, 2023 at 2:13 PM.