He emigrated to New Zealand in 1973, attracted by the climate and hunting.
"We're fortunate to live where you can hunt all year round with few restrictions, so I get plenty of big-game heads to experiment with," he says.
Back in New Zealand, Lee looked around for someone to build a commercial freeze drier and found a firm in North Auckland that made one to his design.
Armed with the $40,000 machine, Lee began introducing freeze-drying to the hunting public and others who might use it.
Another $75,000 drier has been added to his line-up.
He averages about one and a bit trophies a week - big tuskers, wapiti, thar, siska and red deer and some smaller game.
He's also freeze-dried cats and dogs for bereft pet owners and a few human body parts.
"I got a call from a tattooist who'd lost his leg in a car crash," he says.
"It had some of his favourite tats on it and he wanted it preserved.
"I said, sure, just deep freeze it and courier it to me.
"I freeze-dried it and shipped it back.
"He was absolutely chuffed."
Another client had lost a finger in an industrial accident.
"After freeze-drying he now wears it as a pendant.
"He gave me a hug and said I'd made him feel whole again."
Lee first soaks specimens in a commercial moth and roach repellent mixture, then snap-freezes them to minus -25C in the partial vacuum of his machine.
They remain there for 12 to 14 days while Lee gradually increases the temperature.
This freezing hardens the specimen by progressive crystallisation of the free water, locking the body fluids in ice.
Once frozen, the drying process can begin.
Animals are about 70 per cent moisture.
Freeze-drying causes the ice within the specimen to change from a solid to a gas, bypassing the liquid stage altogether.
As much of the air has been removed the ice/vapour molecules can then move to the condenser.
When all ice/vapour molecules are gone from the specimen, it stops losing weight and is thoroughly freeze-dried. It can then be permanently mounted.
The first use of freeze-drying animals for museum exhibits was in 1953. Those specimens are still on display today, housed in a normal room environment.
Prices for Lee's work range from $250 for a weasel, stoat or rabbit to $5000 for a full-size wapiti.
His workshop and east Taranaki home has an abundance of dead animals - a herd of hung deer heads, prowling black bear and stalking wolf.
An amazingly lifelike domestic moggy sits unnaturally at ease among higher-order predators. Lee says: "Between here and Canada, there's stuff-all animals I haven't had a go at."