Lewis Family Athletic Scholarship
History
This endowment fund is established by the family of H. Lauren Lewis. Born July 21, 1915, Lauren spent his childhood in Hartford, S.D., and graduated from Sioux Falls Washington High School in 1935. After first enrolling at Grinnell College (IA), he graduated from USD in 1938 in business administration and received a Law degree at USD in 1939. In 1979, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law Degree at USD.
His career began in the trucking industry where he worked for the American Trucking Association and various trucking firms before returning to Sioux Falls in the late 1940s where he practiced law and founded Midwest Coast transport in 1950. In 1962, he acquired Wilson Trucking, renaming it All American Transport which grew into one of the leading commodity trucking firms in the nation. He sold both firms in 1976. With his sons, he later purchased First State Bank of Armour, S.D., and was a founder of the Bank of the Desert, La Quinta, Calif., in 1986 and remained active in both banking organizations until his retirement in the mid-1990s.
Especially devoted to USD, Lauren co-chaired the campaign for private funds to construct the DakotaDome, later serving as president of the DakotaDome Development Corporation, and was active in the successful effort for a new law school at the University. In the 1970s, he was instrumental in the rebirth of the USD Foundation and served as its president in 1981. In 1998, he received the Inman Award of the Foundation, its highest honor for volunteer service and was later recognized in the dedication of the DakotaDome football field as H. Lauren Lewis Field.
He married Jane Bown Allen in 1939 who predeceased him in 1987. Lauren and Jane were parents of four sons. In 1990, he married Mary Warwick, who survived him at his death on May 28, 2000, and who resides in La Quinta, Calif.
Fund Notes
Started in 2008, earnings are to be used to provide scholarships to students enrolled or accepted by USD who are signed on to participate in or are participating in athletics at USD.
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