W. David Lewis, 1931–2007

SHOT lost one of its most devoted senior members when Professor W. David Lewis of Auburn University passed away on 28 September 2007. Born and raised in central Pennsylvania, David received his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Pennsylvania State University before completing his doctorate in American history at Cornell University in 1961. Moving from Cornell to teach at Hamilton College (1954–57) and the University of Delaware, where he coordinated the Hagley Fellowship Program at the Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation (1959–65), he went on to join the history faculty at the State University of New York at Buffalo before accepting the Hudson Professorship of History and Engineering at Auburn in 1971. There he founded the history of technology program and introduced a course on "Technology and Civilization" as part of the university's core curriculum. The resounding success of this teaching effort led to the expansion of the history department's offerings in the history of technology and its emergence as a center of excellence in the field, internationally known for its scholarship and teaching in aero/astro history.

As the preceding remarks suggest, David Lewis was a gifted teacher—someone who thoroughly enjoyed interacting with people at all educational levels, brought infectious energy and enthusiasm to the classroom, and possessed a wonderful style as a public speaker. A charming element of performance characterized his teaching and public presentations, something that was nicely illustrated when he traveled to the Smithsonian Institution in 1976 to examine and prepare an exhibit review for Technology and Culture of that institution's bicentennial display entitled 1876. Accompanied by several curators (as well as this writer), Lewis made his way through the exhibit, making comments about what he saw and taking copious notes. About a third of the way through he came upon a cluster of reed organs that had been displayed in Philadelphia in 1876 and asked his hosts if could step across the ropes to examine them more closely. When the curators learned that David was the organist at his local church in Auburn, they asked if he would like to play one of the instruments. He immediately entered the exhibit, took a seat at one of the organs, and began to play with considerable passion and skill. Within seconds a crowd gathered and, after he finished, gave him rousing applause—to which he graciously bowed and laughed as he recrossed the ropes and resumed his tour of the larger exhibit. It was a memorable moment that captured David at his unabashed, outgoing best.

As much as David Lewis excelled in the classroom and at the podium, he was best known for his scholarly publications. The range of his work was impressive. Beginning with a pathbreaking book on prison reform in upstate New York during the antebellum period,¹ he moved on to publish three well-received volumes on the iron and steel industry in the United States.² Indeed, his volume Sloss Furnaces and the Rise of the Birmingham District was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in history in 1994. But his first love was the history of aviation. Beginning with a coauthored history of Delta Air Lines, he went on to publish three other books on the airline business.³ In my view, he saved his best for his last. His 2005 biography of Eddie Rickenbacker is a splendid work, well-evidenced by the many prize nominations it received and the excellent reviews that appeared in scholarly journals and the public press.

During his career, David Lewis received numerous honors and recognitions. Among them were SHOT's Leonardo da Vinci Medal in 1993, the Charles A. Lindbergh Professorship at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in 1993–94, a Mellon Research Fellowship at the Virginia Historical Society in 1988–89, and a National Humanities Fellowship at the University of Chicago in 1978–79. He was also the recipient of numerous research and teaching grants, most notably from the Smithsonian Institution, the Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1994, Auburn University appropriately acknowledged David's many...