He was a civil libertarian and activist; she helped start The Trust’s work on Long Island.
Edward Albert Lawrence (1919-2003)
Laurene Belle “Lee” Lawrence (1923-1988)
Ed Lawrence was a chemical engineer, church and education activist, and an advocate for civil liberties. His wife, Lee, helped jump-start The Trust’s work on Long Island as that office’s first executive director in 1978. Together, they made Long Island a more compassionate and caring community.
Edward Albert Levine (Lawrence) was born March 9, 1919, in Manhattan to Julia Oppenheimer and Albert Julius Levine, an electrical engineer. Ed earned his bachelor’s and masters degrees from Cornell University and his PhD in chemical engineering from New York University.
In May 1949, he married the Laurene “Lee” Belle Roberts, a fellow chemist. Lee was born January 2, 1923, in Westchester to Charles Wesley “Wes” Roberts and the former Marion Stuart McNally. Ed and Lee raised two daughters, Pamela and Leslie.
Ed worked as a chemical engineer in Union Carbide’s Manhattan office until he retired in 1959. For the next 40 years, he spent his free time boating, traveling, and advocating for causes he cared about.
After he and Lee moved to Port Washington, they joined the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, where Ed served on the board and on the social justice and stewardship committees. For nearly 20 years, he was executive director of the congregation’s philanthropic work—the Caroline Veatch Assistance and Extension Program, established by a member of the congregation.
In 1971, Veatch helped finance publication of the complete Pentagon Papers, detailing the decision-making that led to escalated U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The documents revealed years of failed U.S. policy in Vietnam and how the American public had been lied to.
“The American people got an opportunity to read them and see for themselves,” said Marjorie Fine, Ed’s successor as Veatch director. Three dozen other publishers had refused to touch the report, and for good reason: Its publication drew the wrath of President Richard Nixon and the scrutiny of the FBI.
“Ed Lawrence advanced our values in the wider world in many different ways,” the Rev. Paul Johnson, senior minister, told Newsday in a 2002 interview.
Under Ed’s leadership, Veatch also helped finance the Student Advocacy Project, which evolved into the Long Island Advocacy Center that works to ensure everyone with disabilities gets the education and support they’re entitled to.
In addition, he served for a dozen years on the board of the Nassau Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “He went out of his way to present civil liberties issues in a way that would win over non-civil libertarians,” Donald Shaffer, the chapter’s legal director, told Newsday.
Meanwhile, Lee helped start The Trust’s work on Long Island, by leading our office there. She died of cancer in 1988 at age 69. Her family, friends and colleagues established what became known as the Ed and Lee Lawrence Fund as a tribute to her.
In 1993, Ed married another Lee—Lee Korobkin, who died of cancer only four years later.
He was vacationing in Japan in November 2002 with his new partner, Nadine Heyman, and her son, Daniel, when he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 83.
“He died doing what he loved to do, traveling with somebody he loved,” his daughter Pamela Lawrence told Newsday. “He continued his high level of activity right up until the end, always a caring person both in his professional and personal life.”