Dr. Lee’s family emigrated from Norway in 1845 and settled in the Milwaukee area. It was here that Dr. Lee’s great intellect and mechanical genius first began to manifest itself. While in high school, he convinced the principal to allow him to teach an advanced physics course. Completing formal training as a dentist at the age of 24 at Marquette University, he focused on the connection between dental caries and improper nutrition.

Dr. Lee became interested in nutrition at a very young age. By age 16, he had catalogued most of the nutritional references in print at that time. The events leading to his discovery of Catalyn are quite profound. In 1929, his mother came down with a strange flu, and was diagnosed with a bad heart. She was given six months to live. When Dr. Lee heard about his mother’s prognosis, he immediately went to work on what would later be known as Catalyn. He brought her this potent vitamin and quickly she began to improve. In fact, she lived for another 12 years (into her 80’s ). His great love for his family, as well as his love for humanity in general, motivated him to discover other whole-food supplements, and eventually led to the founding of Standard Process, Inc.

Around 1937, Dr. Lee conceived the Endocardiograph (an earlier prototype of what is now known as the Acoustic CardioGraph), a tool for graphing heart sounds and a means for measuring nutritional status. Previously, most nutritionally-minded healthcare providers had depended on the stethoscope for a reading of the heart. Dr. Lee realized how subjective this technique could be, this motivated him to invent the Endocardiograph. This tool provided the practitioner with an accurate and detailed recording for evaluation.

For his outstanding work in the field of human nutrition, Dr. Lee was the recipient of many awards, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s highest award, which appointed him Fellow in 1942.

Dr. Royal Lee was a maverick in the field of nutrition, providing the healthcare provider with the tools to determine nutritional deficits and the means to treat those same deficits.