George Ho Lem was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1918. His mother Mary Ho Lem was the first recorded female Chinese resident of Calgary.
He started a successful dry cleaning business and was also a successful restaurateur. He was also a horse breeder who won two Alberta Derbies and was once declared thoroughbred breeder of the year.
He served as a director of Stampede Park for 18 years, and was granted a lifetime membership as an honorary director. He also served as a president of the Calgary Junior Chamber of Commerce, and as a chairman of the board of the Calgary Auxiliary Hospital for sixteen years. He was a founding director of the Metropolitan Calgary Foundation and a long-standing member of the Calgary Stampeders Football Booster Club. His interest in sports led him to Co-chair the 1978 Commonwealth Games held in Edmonton.
He was also very active in the Calgary Chinese community. Few of the organizations he was involved with were the Sien Lok Society, the Oi Kwan Society, the Calgary Chinatown Development Foundation and the Calgary Multicultural Society. He served as a founder, president or chairman of most of these groups.