April 17, 2015

Finest Hour 121, Winter 2003-04

Page 12

By Richard Langworth


George Lewis became treasurer of the then-International Churchill Society following the death of Dalton Newfield in 1982. At the time, our worldly wealth was $389.64.

I often recall our conversations in the early Eighties, just before I would send each 12- or 16-page issue of Finest Hour to press. George would call to give the green light—meaning that he could actually write a check to pay the printing bill without being arrested: “Well, we have $1503.40 in the bank, and we haven’t sent out this quarter’s renewal notices yet. So if the bill is under $2000, we can probably cover it by the time it arrives, and the postage along with it, and even have a little bit left over!”

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George held the treasurer’s job for a record fifteen years until 1997, after the old ICS had been folded into the new Churchill Centre. When he left, the treasury was substantially healthier. George became a founding member of The Churchill Centre and contributed, over the years, generous gifts to its endowment fund. He also served for more than his five year term as a Churchill Centre Trustee, a position from which he has just retired; and here again his advice and ideas were always welcome.

The Churchill Centre Blenheim Award is presented for notable services to the Centre or to the memory of Winston Churchill. At Toronto in 1997, we presented it to George Lewis, “for his dedication to the cause, his steadfast loyalty through good times and bad, for sharing in our triumphs, and helping us shrug off our tragedies. Nobody deserves it more.”

George had joined the old ICS in the 1970s and was one of our longest participating members. When I met him he was just retiring from a long and fruitful career, and had the time —that most precious commodity!— to devote to our affairs. He couldn’t have arrived at a more opportune moment. The sudden loss of Dal Newfield had been a blow to everyone. We were forced to scramble in many directions to find substitutes for the myriad positions Dal had filled.

Always with George, the treasury was in good hands. He and his wife Barbara were frequently present at events, and several times hosted meetings of the Board of Governors at their home in Westiield, New Jersey. They carried betimes during many years a difficult burden, following a serious and debilitating car accident suffered by their daughter, which preoccupied them for a long time.

I am always surprised, because of what I think is its relative insignificance, to find the organization attracting the occasional person whose Churchill interest proves secondary to personal interests or personal ego. George was never one of these. We could always count on him to place the interests of the organization first, even when it was not perhaps the preferred course from his personal standpoint. He was the kind of leader we have needed so often over the years—who, fortunately for us, have always been there.

Another former Governor, Cyril Mazansky, had a way of summarizing people in a few deft remarks that always went to the heart of things. Once at a particularly garrulous and soul-searching meeting, after we had wrestled with and disposed of our little problems for the time being, Cyril, South African by birth, remarked: “I can’t help but think of George as the type of character who built this country—reliable, trustworthy, solid, always willing to look on the bright side. Those people are a dying breed.”

For the sake of his country, one hopes George’s breed is not disappearing. But none of those who worked with him, who appreciate his knowledge and enjoy his comradeship, will never forget the contributions of George Lewis, among which is his old friend.

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