Chimey Lee (Shang-Mei Lee, Vera Lee) was born June 23, 1941 in Washington D.C. to Park Lim Lee and Lai Ping Chu, emigrants from Guangzhou, China. She was the youngest child in a large family of eleven children (one brother being a Captain in the US Air Force who died in combat). She graduated from Coolidge High School in Washington D.C. in 1959, where she excelled in mathematics.

She married Tim Cameron in 1963 and they moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Tim was a luthier who apprenticed with Warren White in San Francisco until his untimely death at age 27. It was through her husband that she met artist Jean Varda (pictured), and harpsichordist Margaret Fabrizio, whose family she stayed close with thereafter.

In 1980 she moved to Sikkim and Nepal for 5 years to study Buddhist teachings from Dudjom Rinpoche and Chatral Rinpoche. She was a practitioner of Chinese naturopathic medicine and astrology. As an active member in Berkeley of the Dzogchen Community at Dondrubling, she was a regular attendee of Ganapuja. She is fondly remembered by them for her strong spirit and unique way of being and moving through the world. She rode a bicycle in all weather, even as she grew older.

As a member of the Gray Panthers of the Berkeley East Bay area and South Berkeley's Friends of Adeline, Chimey is known for her activism with human rights, animal rights, and politics. She spoke at Berkeley city council and commission hearings in favor of police accountability and removing racial bias. She spoke up for safe legal camps and parking for the unhoused and vehicle dwellers, and for remembering the poor and seniors in city policies.

Active until the end, Chimey selflessly focused her energy on the healing of others and the betterment of the world.

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