Samuel John Atlee, 72

August 01, 2023

Samuel John Atlee, 72, of 120 North School Lane, Lancaster, passed away peacefully at home in his sleep, on Tuesday, August 1st, 2023, of natural causes.

Samuel Atlee was the son of Dr. William Augustus Atlee and Mary Zimmerman Atlee and was born on May 24, 1951 at St. Joseph Hospital in Lancaster. He was the youngest of four children, and the third son. He was educated at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, graduating in 1973. He was a Peace Corps volunteer and taught English in Beja, Tunisia. In 1977 he received a graduate degree from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, where he was a Teaching-Writing Fellow.

Samuel Atlee married Paula Nemir, of Media, Pa., in 1975 (divorced 1988) and together they had three children: Paul Nemir Atlee, a businessman, of Collegeville, Pa.; Mary Atlee Castelli, of Lancaster, Pa.; and Samuel J. Atlee Jr., facilities management, of West Chester, Pa. Sam had 8 adored grandchildren; brothers, Benjamin Atlee, husband of Annette, of Lawrenceville, NJ and recently deceased, William Atlee, husband of Judith, of Lancaster, Pa.; and a sister, Mary Littlefield Atlee, wife of Bill, of Boston, MA.

In his professional life, Sam worked primarily in publishing. He was a business writer for Time Magazine in New York, a financial writer for the Vanguard Group in Valley Forge, Pa., and a writer and business manager for the Wall Street Journal. In 1985 he and his family moved to Hong Kong, China, sparking a lifetime interest in Asia. Sam was Circulation Director for the Asian Wall Street Journal and later General Manager of the Far Eastern Economic Review. Since 2008 he ran his own consulting firm, specializing in financial communications.

Sam was also a fiction writer and published two collections of short stories, “Men at Risk” (2002) and “Baby Why Not?” (2008). He published more than 30 stories in literary magazines and in 2001 received a Fellowship in Fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts. He served on the board of the Lancaster Literary Guild and the Hong Kong Publishers Association.

Known affectionately as “Pa,” he was the mastermind of numerous bedtime dramas featuring Pete the Cat and the Frogorotomy News.

Samuel’s forebears came to Lancaster in 1745, from England. He was named for Colonel Samuel John Atlee, of White Horse, who served in both the French & Indian War and the Revolution, and was a member of the Continental Congress.

Services will be private and at the convenience of the family.