CEE alumni, Burton A Lewis, passed away on Sunday, October 13, 2024 due to complications from a fall. He was just 6 months away from celebrating his 100th birthday next spring.
Born in Chicago, Lewis received a BS in Civil Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology (ITT) and an MS from CE at University of Illinois in 1950. His university education was interrupted though by service in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, serving in the European theater of operations in France and Germany. Lewis was discharged from active service in 1946 as a Staff Sergeant but went on to serve in the Army Reserves until his retirement in 1967 as a Lieutenant Colonel.
His civilian career began with the Austin Company in Chicago designing large industrial facilities. The remaining 35 years of his career managing transportation projects as a Chief Structural Engineer with DeLeuw, Cather, and Company (currently the Parsons Corporation) in offices both inside and outside of Chicago, including San Francisco, Pasadena, Kuwait, New Jersey, and Phoenix. He retired as Vice President and manager of the Phoenix office, where he managed the 55-mile Phoenix Outer Loop project. Other notable projects were the Los Angeles Airport's Second Level Roadway, the Port Access Highway in Anchorage, freeways in Sydney, Australia and Las Vegas, and dozens of railroad grade separation projects in California. While resident in Kuwait, he was Project Manager for a planning study to complete the Kuwait urban highway system.
Lewis was a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He served for 8 years on the Executive Committee of the Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering serving as Chairman for one year. He was a member of the engineering honorary societies Chi Epsilon and Tau Beta Pi. After retirement in 1987 he was active with the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) writing problems for the Structural Engineering registration Examination and grading the Exam. In 2020, Lewis was awarded the NCEES Distinguished Examination Service Award for his dedicated service to NCEES and the engineering profession.
He received the CEE Distinguished Alumni Award in 1983 and was always considered a great friend of CEE by all that knew him. Lewis received several other honors, including two awards of Merit from ITT and the 2023 Alumni Medal. In 2013 he received the Palmer Award from the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois honoring his distinguished career as acknowledged by his peers.
Lewis was been involved in a number of philanthropic activities, including the creation of the Burton and Erma Lewis Graduate Fellowship supporting graduate students enrolled in CEE at Illinois. The fellowship is in his and his wife's name, who died in 1991. In addition to the current fellowship fund, Lewis' Will provided for a Chair in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the field of structural engineering at the University of Illinois.
His philanthropy also included Scholarship and Civil Engineering Laboratory Funds at ITT, a Scholarship Fund in the College of Nursing at Rush University, a Scholarship Fund at the American Society of Civil Engineers, and an Endowment Fund at the Jewish Federation or Metropolitan Chicago.