After nearly two years in the making, the Dan Lee Basketball Court will have its official dedication at 3 p.m. Sunday.

The basketball courts at Clisbee Park were renamed in 2015 after Dan Lee, who died Dec. 20, 2011.

Lee was a 1970 Cassopolis High School graduate, who was born in Slaughter, Mississippi in 1951.

He attended Western Michigan University where he majored in political science.

The “Governor,” as he was nicknamed, was a political consultant and active in the community in the mid-1970s. He worked at the Youth Services Bureau.

Lee started the first African American Club in 1969 while still in high school. He helped organize the Martin Luther King Jr. Day events for more than 20 years, which are still being hosted each year in Cassopolis.

He was the recreation director for Cassopolis Public Schools, where he ran summer programs for youth. He founded the Cassopolis Community Association to mentor and tutor at-risk youth. He started the Cassopolis Rocket Football program as well as the youth basketball program.

“It is going to be very special, because he touched the lives of so many kids,” said Kim Brown, Lee’s niece. “Our hope is that the community will remember how important his work was and will help us continue it.”

Brown said more than 50 members of the Lee family will attend the dedication Sunday as the family is hosting its reunion on Saturday.

The Village of Cassopolis will be dedicating the basketball courts in Lee’s honor and Pastor Christopher Pittman of the Church of Cassopolis will have words of reflection.

Hot dogs and drinks will be provided during the event. Music will be provided by Fella Ash.

After originally naming the basketball courts after Lee in the summer of 2015 at Clisbee Park, the village has made dramatic improvements, including repaving the surface, putting up a new fence and adding new basketball rims.

The village council, after much debate as to whether or not to put a sign up at the court or an engraved rock, eventually decided to put up both a rock and a sign.

The rock has already been placed at Clisbee Park, while the sign will go up this week and be covered until the unveiling Sunday.