Dr. W. Lee Powell Jr. has a BS in physics and English, as well as a MS in physics, from Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA, Nacogdoches, TX). He began singing barbershop while at SFA with the East Texas Timbertones. Lee sang with the Timbertones for a couple of years in the mid to late 1990’s, and though didn’t join the BHS until over 10 years later, he was hooked.

After his masters. Lee taught for five years at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts (the state residential honors high school in Natchitoches, LA). Lee left LSMSA to earn his PhD at Texas Tech in physics with a dissertation on “Tidal Streams in the Milky Way: An Observational Study”. He then taught for fours years at Texas Lutheran University as a physics professor. While there, Lee officially joined the BHS in 2010. He then moved to the University of Nebraska Kearney to be a planetarium director and physics professor. He taught the physics of sound at both colleges. He now is a Dean of academic affairs and workforce at the Collin College Frisco Campus, a primarily 2 year college in the north Dallas area.

Over the years, he has sung all 4 parts though he is currently a bass. Lee has been an assistant director both with the Hill Country Chorus in New Braunfels, TX and the 1733 Chorus in Kearney, NE. He attended HU three times in St. Joseph, MO (2011, 2012, and 2014), and once since it moved to Nashville (2019). He was an officer with both the Hill Country Chorus and the 1733. He now sings with the Town North Plano Chapter, where he serves as bass section leader. He served on the board there from 2018-2022. He served as Executive Vice President of the Southwestern District in 2020. He began singing with an additional chorus after HU 2022, Sound by Southwest. That chorus took 2nd at the SWD fall contest, and will compete at International in July 2023 - just one year after it formed!