Andrew L. Lewis, Jr.

Andrew Lindsay Lewis Jr. (November 3, 1931 – February 10, 2016), generally known as Drew Lewis, was an American businessman and politician from the state of Pennsylvania. He was U.S. Secretary of Transportation in the first portion of the administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and is best known for presiding over the firing of the striking U.S. air traffic controllers in 1981.

Life and education Andrew Lindsay Lewis Jr. was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on November 3, 1931, and grew up in Broomall. He received his Bachelor of Science in 1953 from Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania, and in 1955 his Master of Business Administration from Harvard University. He did postgraduate work at MIT in 1968. In June 1950, he married the former Marilyn Stoughton, a Republican former member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. The Lewises had four children together and fourteen grandchildren; son Andrew L. Lewis, III, died in infancy. At the time of his nomination for Transportation Secretary, he was a member of the Schwenkfelder Church. Lewis died of complications from pneumonia in Prescott, Arizona on February 10, 2016, at the age of 84.

Career In the 1950s he held several positions at Henkels and McCoy, Inc. In the 1960s he rose up the ranks of National Gypsum Company, becoming their assistant chairman in 1969. From 1972 to 1974 he was president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Snelling and Snelling, Inc. In 1971, he was appointed as trustee in bankruptcy (along with Richardson Dilworth) for the Reading Company, the railroad company headquartered in Philadelphia, and guided the company through its successful reorganization and discharge from bankruptcy in 1980.

From 1974 to 1981 he headed Lewis and Associates, a business consulting firm. He became involved in politics through a friend, Richard S. Schweiker, for whom he managed successful campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

During the 1976 Republican presidential campaign, Lewis, as head of the powerful Pennsylvania delegation, had backed Gerald Ford, over challenger Ronald Reagan. At the Republican convention, Reagan announced that if nominated he would name Richard Schweiker, Lewis' friend, as his running mate. Lewis had already committed to Ford and so honored his word, and kept his delegation in line to help nominate Ford as the Republican candidate. Reagan remembered his loyalty in 1980, and appointed Lewis to head his Pennsylvania campaign organization.

In 1980, Lewis served as Reagan's Pennsylvania campaign chairman. In this role, he was also chairman of the WACCI subsidiary, Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment Company (WASEC), which eventually became known as MTV Networks after a public offering in 1984. In April 1986, about the time Warner Communications sold its interest in MTV Networks, and purchased American Express's share of Warner Amex Cable (renaming it Warner Cable), Drew Lewis left WACCI to become chairman and CEO of the Union Pacific Corporation and its subsidiary, the Union Pacific Railroad.

In 1986, Lewis appeared at the commencement exercises of his alma mater, Haverford College, to be awarded an honorary doctorate degree. After learning that a significant portion of the faculty of the Quaker college had opposed awarding him the honor because of his actions during the still-controversial air traffic controllers strike, he declined to accept the degree. He said he did so out of respect for the Quaker tradition of making decisions by consensus. He served in that post until 1997. In later years, Lewis sat on the boards of American Express, Ford Motor Company, Gannett Company, and SmithKline Beecham.