| Lee Oras Overholts | |
| Birth Date: | 23 June 1890 |
| Birth Place: | Camden, Ohio, U.S.A |
| Death Place: | State College, Pennsylvania |
| Fields: | mycology |
| Workplaces: | Pennsylvania State University |
| Alma Mater: | Washington University |
| Thesis Year: | 1915 |
| Spouse: | Flora May Conarroe (d.1944); Marie Knautz |
| Partners: | )--> |
| Children: | 4 |
| Author Abbrev Bot: | Overh. |
Lee Oras Overholts (23 June 1890 – 10 November 1946) was an American mycologist known for his expertise on polypore fungi.
Lee Oras Overholts was born in Camden, Ohio and attended Miami University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. His postgraduate education was at Washington University where his Ph.D. was awarded in 1915.
He was married twice, to Flora May Conarroe (died 7 June 1944) and then Marie Knautz. He had four children, two girls and two boys.
Overholts died 10 November 1946 at State College after a very short illness although he had been unwell for the five previous years.
During the course of his graduate school research, he met prominent mycologists such as Bruce Fink, Frank Dunn Kern, and Edward Angus Burt and developed an interest in the polypores. In 1915 Overholts accepted the offer of a faculty post at Pennsylvania State University from Kern. He started teaching courses in botany, and later in mycology and forest pathology. He became a full professor in 1925.
Overholts described 35 polypore fungi either alone or with his colleague Josiah Lincoln Lowe. However, Overholts often neglected to include a Latin description, contrary to the then-prevailing rules of botanical nomenclature, and consequently a large proportion of his species were published invalidly.
Overholts was the vice president of the Mycological Society of America in 1937, and its president in 1938. Several fungal taxa been named in his honor: