Keith Lewis
LEWIS, Keith, BE DIC FAIM FSASM AO CB FTSE HonFIEAust CPEng (1927-2013)
Keith Lewis was Chief Executive and Engineer in Chief of the Engineering and Water Supply Department of South Australia from 1974 to 1987. During that period he exercised leadership of one of Australia’s largest water authorities, putting into effect programs nationally recognised as innovative.
At the national level Lewis made effective and revolutionary contributions to bodies such as the Australian Water Resources Council and the successive institutions responsible for the management of the Murray Darling Basin. He was also the Chair of the Pipelines Authority of South Australia from 1987 to 1993 and the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre from 1986 to 1991, He was a member of the Australian Water Research Council Standing Commission, Chair of the Australian Water Research Advisory Council and a River Murray Commissioner.
Lewis was recognised as the leading influence in the water industry in Australia for a decade.
For this work, in 1982, Lewis was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath and, in 1994, appointed an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia.
He was born on November 10, 1927 at Meldreth Park, Adelaide, the son of Ernest John Lewis and Alinda Myrtle Lewis (nee Edge).
Lewis was educated at Adelaide High School, The University of Adelaide and Imperial College, London. He graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1952 with an Engineering Degree and through a Rockefeller Foundation Grant was able to be awarded a Diploma in Public Health Engineering from the University of London, Imperical College in 1955.
He married Alison Fleming on October 11, 1958 and they had two daughters.
Lewis joined the Institution of Engineers in 1958 and always encouraged young engineers to be active in the Institution. He was SA Division Chairman in 1970. He was added to the Institution of Engineers South Australian Hall of Fame in 2006.
Lewis is an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia, a Fellow of the South Australian School of Mines, a Fellow of teh Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.
Lewis died in Adelaide on November 16, 2013, aged 86.
