Bobby Lee said he intends to resign from the Hawai'i State Boxing Commission shortly and end a 60-year association with the group charged with regulating the sport here.

Lee, 88, said he plans to write a letter to Gov. Linda Lingle announcing his intention to leave the commission before the June, 2010 expiration of his current term.

Lee said a health situation in his family and disagreements with how the current commission operates have prompted him to end a relationship that began in 1947.

"I don't want to blame anybody or create any enemies, but we have some disagreements on how they apply the rules and regulations," Lee said of the current commission.

Lee cast the lone opposing vote among the five voting members at Thursday's commission meeting to approve last night's card at Blaisdell Center. At the time, Lee said he had concerns about financial procedures and licensing policies and stated objections.

Alan Taniguchi, executive officer of the commission, yesterday acknowledged the disagreements and praised Lee.

"Bobby Lee is Mr. Boxing in Hawai'i," Taniguchi said. "He has been a great asset to the commission. Sometimes there are differences of opinions."

Lee, who was an accomplished amateur boxer on his native Maui, has been a manager, referee, judge, inspector, commissioner, commission executive officer and advisor. "Everything but a promoter," Lee said. He joined the commission upon his discharge from the Army and retired as commission executive secretary in 1978.

He is a past president of the World Boxing Association, has been a vice president of the World Boxing Council and an executive officer of the North American Boxing Federation and Orient and Pacific Boxing Federation.

Except for a period of about three years immediately after his retirement as executive secretary, Lee has been associated with the commission in some form. He made national headlines in 1981 when he was summoned from retirement by then-Gov. George Ariyoshi to lead the fight and cast what became the deciding vote in denying Muhammad Ali a boxing license in Hawai'i.

The then-38-year-old Ali was eventually licensed in the Bahamas, where he fought — and lost to Trevor Berbick — in his final bout. Soon after, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Harold Smith, aka Ross Fields, who was to have promoted the fight here, was declared a federal fugitive soon afterward for his part in a $21 million bank swindle. Smith was eventually arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison.