Ken Lewis
Key facilitator of industry support in the founding of the Construction Engineering program and as a construction trade association leader in Iowa
Inducted: 2010
Ken Lewis received a Liberal Arts degree from the University of Kansas in 1941 and went right into the United States Army, serving in the European Theater during World War II. From 1946 to 1953, he was a member of the Kansas National Guard, retiring with the rank of captain.
In 1955, Lewis became general manager of the Master Builders of Iowa (MBI). He fully supported the belief that construction engineering, distinguished from civil and architectural engineering; that construction engineering deserved its own identity and curriculum, which combined the fundamentals of engineering, business, and construction.
He was a leader in establishing and supporting the Iowa State construction engineering program. Under Lewis’s leadership, MBI agreed to fund a significant portion of the construction engineering curriculum for its initial five years and a subsequent four years. As the program developed, Lewis acted as a liaison to Iowa State, expressing assurance for the industry’s need for the construction engineering program.
Lewis established the Ken Lewis MBI Construction Engineering Scholarship to help construction engineering students at Iowa State.