EDWIN W. LEWIS, JR. Research pilot at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center as well as director of operations for Civil Air Patrol's Pacific Region, died Thursday November 8th, when the single-engine Civil Air Patrol Cessna 182 in which he was flying crashed into a mountain 12 miles outside Las Vegas. He was 71. Lewis, and Col. Dion DeCamp, 73, commander of the Civil Air Patrol's Nevada Wing, were apparently flying to Rosamond, California when the crash occurred. The cause of the crash is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. Ed was born in New York City and began flight training as a Civil Air Patrol cadet in 1951, ultimately earning his commercial pilot's certificate in 1958. He received a bachelor's degree in biology from Hobart College, Geneva, N.Y., and entered the U.S. Air Force through the Reserve Officer Training Corps. He served from 1965 through 1966 in Vietnam, where he was a forward air controller, instructor and standardization/evaluation pilot, flying more than 1,000 hours in the single-engine O-1 "Bird Dog" aircraft. He earned a Bronze Star medal as well as a Distinguished Flying Cross. He then joined Pan American Airlines as a pilot. Lewis served with the California National Guard while working for Pan American, flying National Guard cargo planes and helicopters. He retired as commander of the 129th Air Rescue and Recovery Group. He took early retirement from Pan Am in 1989 to join NASA. He flew for eight years at NASA's Ames Research Center in the San Francisco Bay area and at Dryden since 1997. Lewis had served in the Civil Air Patrol for more than 50 years. He was a former national vice commander, elected in August 1993. He served in that capacity for one year. Before that, he served as Pacific Region commander for four years. He also was California Wing commander from 1978 to 1982. Ed was preceded in death by his parents and brother John. He is survived by his wife of 37 years, Midge Lewis of Castro Valley, and sons Eric Lewis of Castro Valley and Steve Lewis of Los Angeles; sisters in law Beverly Lewis of Utah, Sheila Conway (Jack) of Petaluma, and Beverly Borges (Jeff) of Modesto; nieces Susan Tsutsumi (Paul) of Palos Verdes, Kathy Lococo (Larry) of San Anselmo, and four great nieces and nephew. A memorial service will be held Saturday, November 17th at 10:00 A.M. at Transfiguration Church, 4000 E. Castro Valley Blvd, Castro Valley. Additionally, NASA will be holding a service at the Palmdale Airport December 1st. Interested parties may email [email protected] for more details. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the CAP Lewis Scholarship Fund, c/o Pacific Region CAP, PO Box 4718, Hayward, CA 94540.

Alameda Times-Star 11/15/07.