Lee's father was a Kalderash musician from Europe. He emigrated to Canada where he got married, taking his wife's surname, Lee.

Ronald was born in Montreal. In 1939 he visited Great Britain and was unable to travel back home because of the outbreak of World War II. Lee returned to Canada in 1945.

There he worked in summer for the fairs and amusement parks with his uncle, and then attended night school in Montreal in the fall, winter, and spring seasons.

When Lee was 18, he started to travel with a Kalderash family from Europe plating mixing bowls, servicing restaurant kitchens, etc. Later he took courses in journalism and creative writing.

He began to work with the Canadian Roma as an activist in 1965, through Kris Romani (Romani internal judicial assembly) trying to foster a better understanding between Roma and non-Roma, to combat prejudice and misinformation in newspapers and to help the Roma represent themselves. In the 1970s, he got involved in helping the Romani refugees from the Communist Eastern Bloc and ex-Yugoslavia and, from 1989-1990, those seeking asylum as persecuted Roma in their former countries. He went with Yul Brynner, Ian Hancock and John Tene to the United Nations on July 5, 1978 to present a Romani petition asking for NGO status. This was granted a year later.

In 1997, he initiated and was one of the founders of Roma Community and Advocacy Centre (based in Toronto) and the Western Canadian Romani Alliance, in Vancouver, in 1998.

Ronald Lee teaches a course on the Romani Diaspora at the University of Toronto. Learn Romani