This year’s annual Rex E. Lee Run will be held Saturday,March 15, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Outdoor Track at Brigham Young University.
The run honors former BYU President Rex E. Lee and otherswho are fighting cancer. Registration is $15 for the 5k and $20 for the 10k race.All proceeds are used to support cancer research at BYU. To register and toobtain additional information, go to rexleerun.byu.edu.
Runners may wear a “Courage in the War Against Cancer”certificate with the name of their cancer fighter to honor a friend or lovedone with cancer.
BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School students started the Rex E.Lee run in 1990 to honor the founding dean of the school who had been diagnosedwith cancer. Edouardo Zendejas, now a law professor at the University ofNebraska, helped start the run because President Lee was an avid runner.
"We all had such great respect for President Lee, andwe wanted to do something," Zendejas said. "I knew he was a runner,and I thought a race would be the best thing."
NFL quarterback Steve Young, a law student at the time, ranin the first race with President Lee himself. The race was hosted by the law school for two years and hassince been organized by the BYU Cancer Awareness group.
Having graduated first in his law class at the University ofChicago, President Lee served as a law clerk to Byron White, associate justice of theU.S. Supreme Court. In 1972 hebecame the founding dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School. Lee served as an assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice in 1975-76 and as solicitor general of the United States from 1981 to 1985. In 1989 he wasappointed president of BYU where he served until December 1995. He passed awayin 1996 at the age of 61.
Writer: David Luker
