Roger Lewis (January 11, 1912 – November 12, 1987) was an American business executive. He was the CEO of

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

from 1962 to 1970 and was the first CEO of

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

from 1971 to 1975. From 1953 to 1955, he was the Assistant

United States Secretary of the Air Force The secretary of the Air Force, sometimes referred to as the secretary of the Department of the Air Force, (SecAF, or SAF/OS) is the head of the United States Department of the Air Force, Department of the Air Force and the service secretary for ...

Biography

Roger Lewis was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and graduated from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1934. After college, he worked at Lockheed in the sheet metal shop. He remained with Lockheed in progressively higher positions through

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

when he was the company's director of materiel. After Lockheed, he went to

Canadair Canadair Ltd. was a Canadian civil and military aircraft manufacturer that operated from 1944 to 1986. In 1986, its assets were acquired by Bombardier Aerospace, the aviation division of Canadian transport conglomerate Bombardier Inc. Canadai ...

and, in 1950, took a job as vice president of sales and management for

Curtiss-Wright The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is an American manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation (business), consoli ...

. In 1953, President

Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

nominated him as the Assistant

Secretary of the Air Force The secretary of the Air Force, sometimes referred to as the secretary of the Department of the Air Force, (SecAF, or SAF/OS) is the head of the Department of the Air Force and the service secretary for the United States Air Force and United Sta ...

for Materiel. The Senate confirmed his nomination on April 3, 1953, and he was sworn in on April 4. Eisenhower awarded him the

Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...

for his service. After leaving the government, he went to work for

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and more commonly known as Pan Am, was an airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for ...

in its defense projects. In 1962, Henry Crown, the majority shareholder of

recruited Lewis to take over as the president of the company, which had experienced sharp losses in 1960 and 1961 after the company wrote off development costs in its jet program. General Dynamics suffered some setbacks over Lewis' tenure. He worked to push Crown off the company's board and borrowed heavily to buy Crown's preferred stock for $100 million. The

F-111 The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark is a retired supersonic, medium-range, multirole combat aircraft. Production models of the F-111 had roles that included attack (e.g. interdiction), strategic bombing (including nuclear weapons capabilit ...

program suffered from safety concerns and the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

cancelled its orders for F-111B's in 1968. In 1970, the company's reported net earnings of only $2.5 million for 1969. That figure was challenged by associates of Crown, who had bought back shares in the company at depressed prices and regained a board seat. An analysis by Crown suggested that the financials should have shown a $12.1 million loss. The allegations led to a shareholder lawsuit against the company. As the company's Quincy Shipbuilding Division, which Lewis acquired in 1964, and its

Stromberg-Carlson Stromberg-Carlson was a United States telecommunications equipment and electronics manufacturing company. It was formed in 1894 as a partnership by Swedish immigrants Alfred Stromberg (1861 Varnhem, Sweden - 1913 Chicago) and Androv Carlson ...

divisions weighed on the financial results in 1970 and the dividend was pulled, Crown proposed hiring

David S. Lewis David Sloan Lewis Jr. (July 6, 1917 – December 15, 2003) was an American aeronautical engineer who led aerospace and defense giant General Dynamics for 14 years. Early life David Lewis was born in 1917, in North Augusta, South Carolina. As ...

to the board as the new Chairman and CEO. In 1971, Lewis was nominated as the first CEO of

, taking the reins of the passenger rail operations of the major railroads. Although the initial year of Amtrak was troubled as the company ran out of funds and had little left over for capital expenditure, by the end of 1972, passenger traffic was up 11% and revenues were up. Lewis ordered

UAC TurboTrain The UAC TurboTrain was an early high-speed, gas turbine train manufactured by United Aircraft that operated in Canada between 1968 and 1982 and in the United States between 1968 and 1976. It was one of the first gas turbine-powered trains to en ...

s, improved reservations and on-board services. However, Lewis was criticized as the company shed half of its passenger routes after they were assumed. Lewis announced his resignation from Amtrak in 1974 and was succeeded by Paul Reistrup. After leaving Amtrak, Lewis worked with companies in finance and telecommunications. Lewis died on November 12, 1987, at the age of 75.

References

External links

Official Amtrak bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Roger 1912 births 1987 deaths Stanford University alumni American business executives Businesspeople from Los Angeles