US industrial designer from Pasadena, CA who graduated with a degree in architecture from Princeton University.
In 1937, he was named director of the first design program on the West Coast, the California Graduate School of design. After the war, the school was absorbed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and renamed the California School of Design, headed by Walter Baermann.
Lewis established a consulting office where he worked on electric heaters, doorknobs, railway coaches, instrument panels for small planes, and redesigned an oilfield operation to blend it in with its suburban surroundings. Clients included Consolidated Engineering Corporation (oscillograph, 1954).
He was a part-time instructor in industrial design at the University of Southern California (USC) and chaired the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Society of Industrial Designers (SID) in 1950. He was awarded SID Fellowship, which was honored by IDSA when it was formed in 1965.
His firm won back-to-back grand prizes for Rose Parade floats designed for client Minute Maid Orange Juice. Lewis also was sent by client Fruehauf Trailer Co. to Saudi Arabia to meet with then-King Ibn Saud (the younger) about a proposal to create a double-sized royal house trailer.
(photo by Stowe Myers)
