Slain Cash App founder had ties to Cape Girardeau

Bob Lee would give you the shirt off his back.

That's how Lee's father, Rick Lee, described his son, who died early Tuesday morning, April 4.

"He would never look down on anyone and adhered to a strict no-judgment philosophy," Rick lee wrote in a social media post. "Bobby worked harder than anyone and was the smartest person I have ever known."

San Francisco police reported Bob Lee, 43, was stabbed in downtown San Francisco and later died in a hospital. Police have provided little additional information, saying the investigation is still early.

Lee created the mobile payment service Cash App and was the chief product officer for cryptocurrency MobileCoin at the time of his death. He was previously the chief technology officer of the payment company Square, which became Block in late 2021.

Lee had a brief connection to Cape Girardeau as a student at Southeast Missouri State University. Jay Goff, vice president of Enrollment and Student Success at George Washington University in Washington D.C,, met Lee when he worked as the director of admissions at SEMO.

"I first met Bob in the late 1990s when he was 16 years old and he was attending Lindbergh High School in St. Louis," Goff said. "The amazing thing was that, at 16 years old, Bob was a phenomenal code writer and system designer at a time where I'm not even sure those were real job titles."

Goff said Lee loved his time at SEMO.

"He talked at Oxford. He talked at universities all over the world, and he'd always talk about being a proud student of Southeast Missouri State," Goff said.

At SEMO, Lee studied computer science, worked as a web designer in the admissions office, and was in Sigma Chi fraternity.

One of Lee's fraternity brothers was Rob Vescovo, former speaker and majority leader of the Missouri House of Representatives.

"Bob is someone who had a profoundly positive impact on the lives of everyone he came into contact with, and I am blessed to have been able to call him a friend," Vescovo said. "Even with all of the immense success he achieved in the business world, he was still the same thoughtful, kind-hearted person I first met. We're all devastated by his loss, but we know his memory and his legacy will live on in his wonderful children and through the many incredible contributions he has made to our world."

Goff said that although Lee's legacy will probably be for his work in the Big Tech world of Silicon Valley, he most wanted to be remembered as being a great and loving father to his daughters.

"He loved the idea that he could be a great dad who used his gifts to make the world a little bit better. That's just the way he talked," Goff said. "This is so tragic. He's just such a beautiful person."

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this article.