Perley M. Lewis Collection

Perley Mitchell Lewis, engineer and real estate investor, was born to Charles Alexander Lewis (1872-1942) and Louise Marie (Van Hee) Lewis (1876-1965) in La Junta, Colorado on September 17, 1898. He had two siblings, Cora A. (1896-1975) and Charles Alexander (1901-1988). Lewis studied at the University of Colorado for two years before moving to San Marcial, New Mexico in 1917. Here, he worked as a surveyor and clerk in a railway office until returning to Colorado to enlist in the U.S. Army in 1918. He served as an Private in the Student Army Training Corps, Company C, 1st Battalion, at the University of Colorado until he was demobilized in 1919. Lewis returned to school, earning his Bachelor of Science from the University of Colorado in 1922. He moved to Arizona in the mid-1920s and married Mildred Christine Jaeger (1906-1986) on May 28, 1927. The couple had four children: Joseph Perley (1928-1990), Christine Augusta (Lewis) Frederick Hoban (1931-2002), Patricia Louise (1935-), and John David (1936-).

Lewis served as assistant superintendent of the Phoenix Municipal Water Department in the 1940's. He also served on the Arizona Interstate Stream Commission and the Arizona Boundary Commission. His research was used to support Arizona's position in the Arizona vs. California litigation and the congressional battle to authorize the Central Arizona Project. Lewis died in Phoenix on August 24, 1982.