David L. Lewis was born on April 5, 1927, in Bethalto, Illinois, and grew up in Du Quoin and Sesser, Illinois, where his father was a teacher, and then principal, at the local high schools. His father taught English & History, thus he was immersed in and loved history from a very young age. Like most teenagers, he was car crazy and learned to drive in his father’s 1938 Ford.
David Lewis left high school before the end of his senior year in 1945 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. WWII ended before he saw active duty. In 1946 he enrolled in the University of Illinois on the G.I. Bill and completed a B.S. in Journalism in just two years.
After two years as a newspaper reporter, he was hired by Ford Motor Company as the Editor of Employee Publications at the Lincoln-Mercury (Division) Assembly Plant in St. Louis in 1950. He left the company after little more than a year to pursue a master’s degree but returned in 1952, at which time he was promoted to the Corporate News Department, which was located in the Ford Rotunda in Dearborn.
He described this position as, “the care and feeding of journalists conducting research at the new Ford Archives inside the Fair Lane Residence as they prepared stories about the upcoming 50th anniversary of the company in 1953.” He also worked with Allan Nevins and his team of researchers who were preparing the famous book trilogy: Ford: The Times, The Man, The Company (1954); Ford: Expansion & Challenge, 1915-1933 (1957); and Ford: Decline & Rebirth, 1933-1962 (1963), which had been commissioned by Henry Ford II and the company. Additionally, he researched and wrote most of the news releases issued by the company in conjunction with its 50th anniversary celebration. Subsequently, many of these stories were “dusted off” and used for the celebrations of the centennial of Henry Ford’s birth in 1963, and the company’s 75th anniversary in 1978.
After leaving Ford Motor Company Lewis earned an M.S. in Public Relations at Boston University in 1955, and an M.A. in History at the University of Michigan in 1956. He was then a Fulbright Scholar at the London School of Economics & Political Science (1956-57) and completed his Ph.D. in Economic History at the University of Michigan in 1959.
In that same year he was hired by General Motors Corporation, where he handled the president’s correspondence, wrote speeches, presentations, and Congressional testimony for top management. He also served as a Public Relations Specialist for such topics as auto safety, air pollution, racing and minority employment, and served as the secretary of GM’s PR Planning Committee.
Leaving GM in 1965 was a difficult decision. He was 38 years of age at the time and had a wife and four small children to provide for. Fortunately, his wife supported the move to the University of Michigan, along with the accompanying one-third decrease in salary, and loss of an annual bonus. He said of this change, “few people ever left General Motors. I mean, when you were with GM, where did you go from there? I believe I might very well have become V.P. in charge of PR. I was told as much when they were trying to persuade me to stay.”
But he was possessed with the idea of writing a book about Henry Ford that by that time had been simmering inside him for more than a decade. He added, “I could never fully commit myself to the place (GM) as most did. The reason I couldn’t was that I wanted to write.”
David Lewis’ primary research interest was always the life of Henry Ford, but his work at GM, and as Professor of Business History at University of Michigan, led him to expand his study to overall automotive history and business/entrepreneurial biography and history. He said of this research, “in other words, I am more concerned with the men and companies that made vehicles than the vehicles themselves. Although I do have a special interest in the history of the [Ford] Model T and [1928-31 Ford] Model A.”
Joining the University of Michigan on January 1, 1966, as an Associate Professor of Business History, he also served as the Business School’s first Public Relations Manager. Fortunately, not long before reaching the university’s then mandatory retirement age of 70, this rule was dropped, and he continued to teach for more than 40 years, until shortly after his 80th birthday. He has always referred to the job as a professor as the “best in the world.”
In 1973, as a favor to his boyhood friend, George Slankard, who was publisher of Amos Press, he joined Cars & Parts Magazine and went on to write the monthly “Ford Country” column through the end of this magazine’s run in 2010. From this column, Amos Press published two books: Ford Country, Vol. 1 and Ford Country, Vol. 2.
After completing the 600-plus pages of The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and His Company in 1976 (reprinted in paperback in 1987 and offered by Wayne State University Press until 2015), David Lewis went on to write and/or edit several additional auto related books. In the end he published more than 4,000,000 words and 400 articles relating to Ford history. Despite all of this, he always remarked that, “I don’t think I have Henry Ford completely figured out, even yet.”
As the owner of a 1921 Model T Touring car from 1972-2006, he felt that “old-car hobbyists are among the finest people on the face of the earth,” and always enjoyed being among them on tours, at gatherings, and swap meets. This included fall AACA meet in Hershey, PA. where he was an annual visitor for over 30 years.
David Lewis also served as a Trustee of the Detroit Public Library’s National Automotive History Collection. He was a member of the University of Michigan Press Executive Committee and the Editorial Board of the Michigan Quarterly Review. He was Director of the Model T Ford Club of America and a founding member, as well as board member and historian for the Henry Ford Heritage Association.
David received the Friend of Automotive History and the Cugnot Award as well as an Award of Distinction from the Society of Automotive Historians, serving as SAH president from 1981-1983. He served for many years as the chair of the SAH’s Friend of Automotive History and Cugnot Committees, and as a member of the former Student Essay Committee.
David Lewis was the second recipient of the Henry Ford Heritage Association’s Friend of Ford in 1997. He also received a special Friend of Fair Lane (the home of Clara and Henry Ford) Award, from the University of Michigan, Dearborn, in 2009.
In addition, he received awards from the Antique Automobile Club of America, Model T Ford Club International and the Model A Restorers Club for editorial contributions to their publications. He also received the Duryea Award from the Antique Automobile Club of America and an Award of Merit from the Historical Society of Michigan for the 1976 “outstanding book on Michigan History”.
He also served as: Adviser, Historic Preservation Master Plan, Fair Lane (the home of Clara and Henry Ford); Academic Advisor, “Motor City Exhibit,” Detroit Historical Museum; Consultant, “Michigan in the Twentieth Century Exhibit,” Michigan Historical Museum, Lansing; founding member and Adviser, National Automotive Heritage Area; founding board member, Model T Automotive Heritage Complex (dba Ford Piquette Avenue Plant), Detroit; Advisor, Public Broadcasting Corporation, for U.S. auto centennial film series, “America on Wheels” (and was an onscreen interviewee); Consultant, National Video Communications, Inc.; Member, Editorial Board, Michigan Quarterly Review; Member, American Historical Association, Economic History; Association, Business History Conference, Historical Society of Michigan, Illinois State Historical Society; and was the Associate Editor, Cars and Parts Magazine, 1978-2010; and Associate Editor, Model T Times, 1972-2000.
In 1979, when Henry Ford II announced his retirement, David Lewis sent him a letter urging Mr. Ford to revive the Ford Archives’ Oral History Project, adding that he owed it to the company to also be interviewed for this program. To his surprise, Mr. Ford replied by letter a week later, indicating that he agreed the project should be revived and that he would be a participant.
This led Ford Motor Company to provide the University of Michigan with a grant and David Lewis was given a two-year sabbatical during which he interviewed over 600 then current and past Ford executives, and other industry figures, on five continents. He also conducted four interviews with Mr. Ford between 1980 and 1985, for use in an authorized biography that was in the works at the time of his passing.
David Lewis lived by the simple dictum of Henry Ford, the man who has played such a force in his life: “To keep going, keep going.”
The publications that he authored, co-authored and/or edited included the following:
The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and His Company. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1976.
Ford, 1903 to 1984 (co-author). New York: Beekman House, 1983.
The Automobile and American Culture (co-editor). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1983.
Detroit Style: Automotive Form 1925-1950 (co-author). Detroit: Founders Society, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1985.
Ford Country. Sidney, Ohio: Amos Press, 1987; revised second edition, 1999.
Ford Chronicle: A Pictorial History From 1893 (co-author). Lincolnwood, ILL.: Publications International, Ltd., 1992.
The Car and the Camera (co-author). Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996
Ford Country, Vol. II. Sidney, Ohio: Amos Press, 1999
100 years of Ford: A Centennial Celebration of Ford Motor Company (co-author). Lincolnwood, Ill.: Publications International, Inc., 2003.
The more than 400 articles that he authored on automotive subjects, most of them related to the life of Henry Ford/history of Ford Motor Company, appeared in publications ranging from American Heritage, Cars & Parts, Collier’s Encyclopedia, Dictionary of American Biography, Michigan History, New York Times, Old Cars, Ward’s Auto World and World Book Encyclopedia.