Lee Tepper received a baccalaureate degree from St John’s College in 1969. He came to North Coast with Dorine Real in 1974, where he worked at the Fort Bragg County Library and then for the State Parks. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from UC-San Diego in 1982, he worked in that field or taught until he retired in 1989. Tepper joined the board of the Symphony in January 2003. In 2007, with Dorine Real, he purchased the Westport Hotel and the Old Abalone Pub and remains the proprietor there.