CAPE ELIZABETH – Shepard Lee has been interested in politics since he ran for the student council at Bowdoin College and won.

That was in the mid-1940s just before he started out on political adventures that brought him close friendships with Ed Muskie, George Mitchell, Frank Coffin and other Democratic Party notables.

On Saturday, Lee was honored at the University of Southern Maine on his 80th birthday by his family and some of those Democratic leaders, including Mitchell, Gov. John Baldacci, Rep. Tom Allen and USM President Richard Pattenaude.

Lee, who was born Shepard Lifshitz, has been a key figure in shaping the Democratic Party in Maine, and was one of a handful of Democrats in the 1950s who helped rejuvenate the party from its weak minority position.

The former CEO of Lee Auto Malls and president of its board of directors never ran for political office and never held a position in the Democratic Party, but he was an organizer and fundraiser. Lee said that he did “mostly mundane, but necessary things,” like transport people to the polls.

But key Democrats would say he is too modest.

While Lee was helping the Democratic Party rejuvenate, he was also seeing success with the family car business.

His father, Joseph, an immigrant from Russia, started the business in 1936, after attempts at other jobs including working at Bath Iron Works during World War I and as a peddler, Lee said. His father was selling cars when he was offered a DeSoto Plymouth dealership in Androscoggin County for $1,100. That was the beginning of the Lee Auto Malls business that now has 15 franchises in 10 locations.

Lee’s first job after college was at the Lewiston dealership.

It was because of his brother Harold that Lee changed his name. Lee said his brother was having difficulty getting into medical school because there was a quota on how many Jews were accepted. A Bates College professor told him that if he Anglicized his name he might be able to get in. So when Harold Lee changed his last name, Shep Lee decided to change his last name, too. Harold went on to study medicine at Boston University and became a psychiatrist.

Through the years, Shep Lee has also been active in his support of higher education in Maine and of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2004, Lee and Lee Auto Malls donated $250,000 to USM’s Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service for its soon-to-be-built new headquarters on the Portland campus, where a meeting hall will be named the Shepard Lee Community Hall.

Lee has served on the USM Muskie School board of visitors, the USM School of Business advisory council, the USM Institute for Family-Owned Business advisory board and the University of Maine School of Law board of visitors.

He also served on the White House Conference on Small Business under President Jimmy Carter, and he was recognized by Time magazine as one of eight outstanding auto dealers in the nation. He served on the New England Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and has received numerous honors for community service. He served on the state Senate Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs, was chairman of the Finance Authority of Maine and still serves on the Maine Community College System board of trustees and the George Mitchell Scholarships Fund board.

He and his wife, Candice Thornton Lee, spend time at their homes in Cape Elizabeth in New York City. A son, Adam Lee, lives in Cumberland and is president of Lee Auto Malls. A daughter, Cathy Lee, is an attorney who lives in North Yarmouth.