Gene Winfield Lewis

Gene was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1946. His father, Harry, was from Mt. Pisgah, West Virginia, and his mom, Ethel, hailed from West Newton, Pennsylvania. He was raised in coal mining and steel mill towns, but in spite of those challenging times Gene was taught to treat people with respect and kindness. They were values that would serve throughout his life.

His high school years were spent in a Pittsburgh High School, Peabody High, where he was introduced to musical percussion playing and got to be a member of the Peabody Marching Band and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra. He was selected his senior year as lead percussionist to the Pittsburgh All City Orchestra and the All City Symphony Band.

He put himself through college playing in rock bands like The Chosen Few and The Trip, and in 1968 graduated with a degree in Mathematics from Grove City College and a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. He proudly served from 1968 to 1973 as a Missile Combat Crew Commander with the 351st Strategic Missile Wing in Missouri, and then as an instructor with the 4315th Combat Crew Training Squadron in California. During his service he obtained the rank of Captain and received the Air Force Commendation Medal. Gene also earned a Masters Degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California while stationed at Vandenberg AFB.

In 1975 Gene took one of his greatest adventures when he rode a unique three cylinder Triumph 750 motorcycle for over 6000 miles around the US including the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia. He was the fastest cycle on the road that summer! Another fun achievement was riding the entire Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive with his brother Dale on his red Honda. He spent his last riding days in the 2000's scooting around Colorado along side Julie Kramer Cole on her Sportster Lillybelle. His blue HD Sportster 883 was his favorite ride!

A decade spent in the late 70's & 80's in Sales & Marketing in the Silicon Valley and Fort Washington, PA introduced Gene to the fast moving world of technology. Gene traveled to Saudi Arabia in 1982 for the Honeywell Corporation where he instructed an international staff on how to operate the computer systems for one of the largest refineries in the world. In 1984 he accepted the position of CIS Department Chairman at Delaware Valley College in Pennsylvania where he helped to build the schools first major in Information Systems.

Gene married the love of his life, Dianne, in 1979 and they conceived two special girls, Denise and Danielle, while living in Doylestown, Pa. In 1987 they made the decision to relocate to Colorado as the place where they wanted to raise their family. They started Colorado's first Desktop Publishing company, LaserTalk™ Communications, in Loveland, CO which became a state of the art desktop publishing learning studio. They also helped to create the Computer Learning Center - northern Colorado's first PC training school.

In 1988 Gene was hired as a professor in the College of Business at Colorado State University where he designed, presented, and managed an internationally recognized computer literacy program. During his 20 years with the CSU College of Business he would introduce over 35,000 students to the world of technology, serve on the universities first technology committees, and receive numerous recognitions such as Professor of the Year, and the International IT Training Award from London, England. During this time he published articles with numerous national computer publications and academic journals along with a computer column in the Loveland Reporter Herald Today's Business magazine. In 2002 he authored the first Interactive E-Learning Book in the US titled Essential It Skills - A Blended E-Learning Classroom Course. The book was published in conjunction with Electric Paper Corporation from Dublin, Ireland and Kendall Publishing. He retired in 2008 as a Professor Emeritus from CSU.

Among some of the bands that Gene performed with over a 50 year music career as a percussionist started with the Contrails in the 60's as a surf band in Pittsburgh. In the 70's it was the hard rock band Purple Bruce and the Cosmic Muffin shortly after the military in Lompoc, CA. The most fun of all came in the 2000's with Vintage Winds in Colorado - a surf band - along with swing and classic rock. During his music career Gene had the opportunity to play at Carnegie Music Hall, the New York Worlds Fair, and CSU Homecomings.

One of Gene's proudest achievements was the publication of his biker adventure novel A Run Up The Coast in 2006. The novel was 25 years in the making and contains a prologue about the rise and fall of an invisible international government, the Concern, in a dystopian future. One reviewer claimed that the Prologue would "knock your socks off" because of how the conspiracy theory is currently playing out before us! You can visit the story at: arunupthecoast.com.