James Bee was born in 1913 in Provo, Utah to Robert George and Mary Culbertson Bee. He developed an appreciation of and enthusiasm for nature at an early age. At the time, little was known about the natural and archaeological history of the Utah Valley, so Bee explored the region as a boy by going on many collecting trips with his father.

Bee attended Brigham Young University (BYU) for his undergraduate degree before serving in the Army with a field hospital unit in Asia during World War II. During this time he married Annette Pistor Malseed. Together they had three children: James, Annette, and Mary.

Bee returned to the United States after the war to finish his masters degree at BYU and then continued his graduate study at the University of Kansas. After earning his PhD, he stayed at KU as a professor of zoology and curator of mammalogy.

Bee worked with Philip Humphrey to create the Museum Studies program at KU and implemented many new educational initiatives and collections methods at the university's Natural History Museum. His most notable field work was conducted in the Point Barrow region of the Arctic and in the Utah Valley.

After his retirement from KU in 1979, James Bee moved with his wife to Lopez Island, Washington and continued his natural observations and studies. He passed away April 18, 1996.