Gus Lee is a best-selling American author and ethicist. He was born in San Francisco, a place he recounts in his childhood memoir/novel China Boy (1991). He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, did graduate study in East Asian History and obtained a J.D. (Law) degree from the King Hall School of Law UC Davis. At Davis, Lee served as an Assistant Dean of Students for the Educational Opportunity Program and project coordinator for Asian American Studies. He returned to the Army as a lawyer, serving as a Command Judge Advocate, a U.S. Senate ethics investigator and legal adviser to the worldwide Connelly Investigation. He was a whistle blower, which involuntarily launched him towards a future as an ethicist. He later became a senior deputy district attorney, acting deputy attorney general and senior executive for legal education for the State of California.