William J. Lee, Jr., formerly of Niskayuna, N.Y. died on Friday, Oct. 31. at the Kingsway Manor Nursing Home, where he lived for nearly a year. He was 88 years old.

William was a longtime summer resident of Chilmark, where his wife’s family had summered for five generations. He loved to go birding on the Island.

He was born in Winchester and attended Mission Hill High School in Roxbury. He worked for several years at the Boston Public Library to support his younger brother and sister while they finished high school. He enrolled in the United States Naval Reserve on Oct. 27, 1954. He matriculated at Harvard University, but during what would have been his senior year, he was deployed from October 1961 to August 1962 as a sonarman on the destroyer the USS Miller during the Berlin Wall Crisis.

He returned to Cambridge and graduated with an A.B. Degree from Harvard College in Architectural Sciences — City Planning in 1963.

He married Christine Chandler Jones on June 15, 1963, whom he met while both were working at Widener Library at Harvard. The couple moved to Chapel Hill, N.C., after a honeymoon at Christine’s parents’ summer home in Chilmark. William completed course requirements for a master of regional planning, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1965.

He joined the New York State Department of Transportation under Nelson Rockefeller in 1965 and moved to Schenectady, N.Y. He served the State of New York for 31 years, retiring in 1996. He held various assignments as an urban planner and transportation analyst in the planning division, including Head, Data Services Section (1973-1981); Head, Upstate Metropolitan Planning (1981 to 1988); Head, Downstate Metropolitan Planning (1988 to 1990); and Principal Transportation Analyst, Policy Development Group (1990-1996).

He was a member of the American Planning Association since 1965 and the American Institute of Planners since 1972. He served as president of the New York Upstate Chapter, 1983-1985; as Legislation Committee Chairman, 1972-1983, and Executive Committee Member at Large, 1981-1987.

He was an avid birder and longtime member of the Hudson Mohawk Bird Club (president 1977-1979) and the New York State Ornithological Association. For the latter, he was president 1993-1994 and was a delegate from HMBC for over 20 years.

In retirement, he led a Thursday morning birding group to hot spots in the Capital District Area, as well as many field trips. He travelled throughout the United States, as well as to Mexico, Costa Rica, the Dry Tortugas and the Rio Negro in Brazil in pursuit of life birds.

He was an avid connoisseur of jazz and looked forward to jazz festivals at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and Lake George every summer. He attended “Jazz on Jay” in downtown Schenectady and the Schenectady Community College Jazz Ensemble Concerts as well as faculty concerts at Skidmore College. He had an extensive jazz record and CD collection.

He moved to Niskayuna in 1968 and was a longtime advocate for conservation and the environment in Niskayuna. He joined the Niskayuna Town Conservation Advisory Council in 1978 and went on to chair it until his retirement in 2019.

He is survived by his wife, Christine Jones Lee; a brother, Edward P. Lee (Susan) of Grafton, Mass.; two children, Allison Blackwell Lee (William John Good) of Schenectady; and Jonathan Chipman Lee (Laurie) of Austin, Texas; a granddaughter, Evelyn Blackwell Lee of Austin, Texas; and many nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews and cousins.

Donations may be made in his honor to the Nature Conservancy or the Trustees of Reservations, Massachusetts.