[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 9158-9160]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  IN MEMORY OF EMANUEL RAYMOND LEWIS, LIBRARIAN EMERITUS OF THE U.S. 
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 28, 2014

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to an extraordinary 
life, to an extraordinary individual, to a dear friend of mine for 
many, many years. Emanuel Raymond Lewis, Librarian Emeritus, the last 
and longest serving Librarian of the U.S. House of Representatives, 
prolific author, archivist, educator, humorist, historian, illustrator, 
psychologist, and recognized expert on military and naval history, died 
May 14 in Suburban Hospital, Bethesda, MD.
  He was the husband of my former Chief of Staff, Eleanor Lewis, an 
extraordinary individual in her own right, who had been Geraldine 
Ferraro's Chief of Staff and John Dingell's Chief of Staff as well.
  Dr. Lewis was appointed House Librarian in 1973, and served until 
January 1995 when the library, which predated the Library of Congress, 
along with the House Historical Office, was down-sized and placed under 
the Legislative Resource Center. The Library was the official custodian 
of all documents generated by the House.
  Ray Lewis was a man of the House, and so much more. Ray lived a life 
of vast experience--he was a genuine Renaissance man. He loved his 
work, and his scholarship and service to the House and to this country 
left us all enriched.
  During his tenure as an officer of the House, Dr. Lewis combined 
disciplined intellect with a deep interest in the House's history and 
the patience to guide House members and staff seeking historical 
understanding of this institution. During the House Judiciary 
Committee's

[[Page 9159]]

impeachment hearings on President Nixon, Lewis provided critical 
historical references to guide the committee in its work. And he 
honored the tradition of the office he headed, authoring a history of 
``The House Library'' and promoting the ties with the Senate Library 
and the Library of Congress' Congressional Research Service.
  Mr. Speaker, as I said, I knew Ray Lewis for much of the time I have 
served in the House of Representatives. I got to know him, his sense of 
humor, his sense of this institution, his sense of decency, his sense 
of excitement of what was going on here and around the world. And with 
Eleanor he traveled much of the world and, in each place, brought 
something new home with him to share with all of us.
  From his service as an officer in military intelligence from 1954-
1956, Dr. Lewis developed a life-long interest in the history of 
military architecture and technology in the United States, which 
culminated in the 1970 publication of ``Seacoast Fortifications of the 
United States'' published by the Smithsonian Institution Press. He 
wrote this work while a Post-Doctoral Research Associate 1969-1970 at 
The Smithsonian Institution. Initially an architectural student at the 
University of California at Berkeley, Dr. Lewis turned his early 
drawing talents to illustrate his book.
  Commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps, he 
transferred to Military Intelligence when the Corps was abolished 
shortly after his commission. As commander of a group of Soviet 
military defectors--Lewis was a native Russian speaker--he was assigned 
responsibility for testing security at military bases. He retired as a 
Captain.
  Dr. Lewis researched military documents in the National Archives, and 
traveled extensively to fortification sites around the country for his 
book, the first comprehensive work on the subject of coastal 
fortifications in a century, now used by the U.S. National Park Service 
in training their employees. This seminal work examined the prominent 
role played by these fortifications in American defense policy prior to 
World War II.
  Lewis was accompanied on these travels by his future wife, Eleanor, 
and the couple referred to the time as `their forting days in lieu of 
their courting days.' Travel would become a constant in their lives 
together--his proposal of marriage included an unusual vow--``marry me 
and I will take you to Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara''--and he did. 
Over forty-five years they would visit every continent, and more than 
100 countries.
  Eleanor, as I said, was my Chief of Staff, and she is still a very 
dear and close friend. She and Ray were partners in life for over four 
decades. They were partners, as well, in intellectual pursuit and in 
love of this country and this institution.
  Dr. Lewis published widely in military and naval-related journals 
including ``Military Affairs,'' the ``U.S. Naval Institute 
Proceedings,'' ``The Military Engineer,'' ``Capitol Studies,'' ``U.S. 
Naval Institute Proceedings;'' ``Military Engineer,'' ``Dictionary of 
American History,'' Encyclopedia of the United States Congress;'' and 
``Warship International.'' Editors of the latter publication honored 
his work in their annual ``Best Articles of the Year'' on three 
separate occasions.
  In 1969 working for System Development Corporation of Santa Monica, 
CA, considered the world's first computer software company, Dr. Lewis 
co-authored ``The Educational Information Center: An Introduction,'' a 
general guide to the process of establishing an educational information 
center.
  Born to Siberian immigrants in Oakland, CA, November 30, 1928, Dr. 
Lewis attended the University of California at Berkeley (BA/MA) and the 
University of Oregon (PhD). While enrolled at the University of Oregon 
he studied with a grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health 
(NIMH). He became a tenured psychology professor in the Oregon 
University System for a half-dozen years. Dr. Lewis was among the first 
psychology professors to participate in the creation of the Oregon 
State Board of Psychologist Examiners, and the first Oregon professor 
to teach on campus through television.
  Dr. Lewis had a life-long love of public spaces and actively worked 
to preserve parkland. On May 27, 1937 at age 8, he joined his parents 
and his brother Albert, now deceased, in walking across the Golden Gate 
Bridge on opening day. He donated specimens unearthed at forts to 
national and state parks, including Fort Stevens at the mouth of the 
Columbia River in Oregon.
  To honor his father, Jacob A. Lewis, Dr. Lewis donated ten acres to 
the city of Hayward, CA--the ``J.A. Lewis Park'' is now part of the 
Hayward (CA) Area Recreation and Park District. The elder Lewis had 
donated the same land area--ten acres--in San Francisco to build 
Congregation Ner Tamid.
  In 1965, Dr. Lewis prepared ``A History of San Francisco Harbor 
Defense Installations: Forts Baker, Barry, Cronkhite, and Funston'' for 
the State of California Division of Beaches and Parks. This work, which 
evolved into Dr. Lewis' later book on coastal fortification, was 
instrumental in the formation of the Golden Gate National Recreation 
Area (GGNRA) in 1972. In 1971 Dr. Lewis was called to testify before a 
subcommittee of the House Interior Committee during hearings on 
creating the GGNRA.
  Dr. Lewis was well-known to House Members and especially staff who 
sought his help in researching issues before the Congress. He was 
regarded as a friendly curmudgeon who could be relied on to quickly 
locate helpful historical information. The time he saved those 
staffers, however, was all too frequently consumed in conversation 
about whatever matter Dr. Lewis happened to be engaged in researching 
at the time.
  His curiosity and love of learning spanned a wide range of interests. 
Those interests were manifested in his personal collection of authentic 
African spears, including several purchased in Umhlanga, South Africa, 
which were used in the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War; the muzzle of a 16-inch gun 
from the USS Indiana now on display at the Navy Museum in Washington, 
D.C.; a 1954 MG which was best of show in the 25th Anniversary of the 
``Concours d'Elegance'' June 29, 1997 in Forest Grove, Oregon; and 
Soviet Field Marshal memorabilia. Side interests included the study of 
California geography, and Native American tribes--the House Librarian 
was once called upon by Vice President Spiro Agnew for advice on the 
authentic pronunciation of tribal names.
  It was fitting that the House Librarian--in the tradition of 
Jefferson--held thousands of books in his personal collection.
  Ray's passions for travel and collecting items of interest came 
together when it came to trains. It's hard to know whether his 
collection of train models, especially those of the Southern Pacific 
Daylight, came from the time he spent riding the rails, but we know he 
loved traveling by train. His adventures included a cross-country 
excursion from Washington, DC to San Francisco, as well as passage on 
the Trans-Siberian Railway from Khabarovsk to Moscow. Along with his 
trips on the Canadian and Pacific Railways, Ray's rail experiences, 
like so much of his life, were full and adventurous.
  For all his scholarly activities, Lewis took great pleasure in 
hanging out with some of the legendary cultural figures of his time--
jazz greats Louis Armstrong and Dave Brubeck, as well as comedy giants 
Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl at San Francisco's ``Hungry i.''
  An engaging and enthusiastic raconteur, Lewis could entertain with 
stories of juicy irony from the day's news, or of his time playing 
slots with Frank Sinatra in Reno, Nevada when the singer was obtaining 
his divorce from Ava Gardner. His own performing exploits--he sang and 
played guitar--ended with producing musicals and comedies in graduate 
school.
  Born with a rare cholesterol disorder, Dr. Lewis first entered NIH in 
1964 as an in-patient, and was involved in the National Heart, Lung, 
and Blood Institutes' research protocols that led to the discovery of 
the statin drugs. Dr. Donald S. Fredrickson, named by President Gerald 
Ford to become head of the National Institutes in 1974, was Lewis's 
doctor; Lewis was a research patient in Dr. Frederickson's 1967 paper 
describing the classification of lipoprotein abnormalities in five 
types. This became known as the ``Frederick classification,'' later 
adopted as a standard by the World Health Organization in 1972.
  A devoted atheist, Dr. Lewis became a minister in the Universal Life 
Church, Inc., in the 1960s--he liked to joke that he could marry you or 
bury you--your choice. In 1999, he experienced a lifetime thrill when 
he met the Dalai Lama at a dinner in Washington, D.C. The Lewises had 
recently visited Lhasa, Tibet and at the dinner presented the Dalai 
Lama with photographs of Norbulingka, the summer palace from which he 
escaped the Chinese in March 1959.
  Ray Lewis, to the end of his life, digested life, welcomed life. 
Tennyson wrote, in his poem Ulysses: `I am a part of all that I have 
met;/yet all experience is an arch whichthro'/gleams that untravell'd 
world whose margin fades/for ever and forever when I move./How dull it 
is to pause, to make an end,/to rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!'
  That was Ray Lewis's philosophy. He saw life as an ever-expanding 
opportunity to enrich himself and others with his intellect and his 
excitement for what could be done in this House. His knowledge, his 
intellect, his humor, his engaging personality truly shined upon us 
all.
  Ray was my friend. He was an American to be admired by us all, a good 
citizen, a great

[[Page 9160]]

American, a man of the House. I join in expressing my sympathy to 
Eleanor, their son Joseph, and the extended Lewis family for their loss 
but also to all of us for our loss of a good and decent man who made 
such an extraordinary contribution to this country and to all who serve 
it in the People's House.

                          ____________________