17th annual Colorado Ethics in Business Alliance Awards
Page 3
Daniel R. Ritchie Award
HARRY LEWIS
Harry Lewis
Ask Harry Lewis about how he developed his sense of ethics, and he has no grand theory. He had great mentors, he says. “I learned about ethical conduct in undergraduate school and through good parenting,” says Lewis, who earned a bachelor’s degree in art history from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business. “Mentors count for a lot in your life as far as what type of business practices you adopt.”
Lewis, 76, remembers having to spend time as a college student interviewing Harvey Hood of H.P. Hood & Sons as part of a class project. The Boston-based dairy had been accused of price fixing in the 1950s, and the school used the incident to teach business ethics as part of a pilot program. Those lessons were reinforced when he went to work as an accountant for Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. in Denver in 1958 following two years of service in the U.S. Navy. “They made sure no lying or cheating was going on and put some clients out of business,” says Lewis, who grew up in Denver.
Sitting down to talk with Lewis at the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce offices downtown, it’s hard to know where to start. The longtime Colorado resident is one of those city leaders whose civic resume tells as much about the history of Denver as it does about him. In 1967, he joined a task force designed to resurrect the city’s streetcar system that became the Regional Transportation District. His stint since 1979 as a trustee for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science led him to help create the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District, the taxing structure that supports nonprofit entities throughout the Front Range. His current board memberships include Downtown Denver Inc. and the Stapleton Foundation, to name just a couple.
These days, Lewis runs an investment firm from his home, but he spent most of his career as a certified public accountant, including a long stint with Boetcher & Co., where he was hired by E. Warren Willard, a man he considers one of his most important mentors and the person who pushed him to get involved in civic affairs. “I really learned how important the nonprofit world and community activities can be,” Lewis said.
Lewis left Boetcher in the early ’80s to work for Dain Bosworth Inc., where he served as senior vice president and was a member of the New York Stock Exchange. He started his own investment firm in 1989.
Hart Axley, president of the Colorado Ethics in Business Alliance, nominated Lewis, whom he met nearly 50 years ago when both men served on Colorado ski patrols. Axley and Lewis share a passion for the arts and cultural groups Lewis helped support through his work on the Boetcher Foundation. “He’s spent a long time doing things for Denver and Colorado that have really done a great deal to enhance the enjoyment of Denver and Colorado for all of us who live here and for the people who have visited here,” Axley said.
— Mike Cote
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