Dr. Fred H. Lewis, of Arendtsville, entered into eternal rest December 16 in Gettysburg.

He was the son of the late Olin and Viola Turner Lewis.

Dr. Lewis was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Arendtsville.

He was the fifth of the seven sons and five daughters of Olin and Viola Turner Lewis and was one of the tenth generation of descendants of Richard and Frances Lewis who migrated from Wales to Viginia in the 1630's. One of Richard's descendants of the fifth generation, William Lewis, married a Holland Dutch girl, Mourning Van Pelt, from New York, and moved to South Carolina where the couple reared eight sons and three daughters. A grandson, Angus Lewis, was killed in the battle of Gettysburg.

Fred H. Lewis was a student in Horticulture at Clemson University in the 1930's during the severe economic depression of that time. As a student assistant, he was involved in the breeding of the Clemson variety of spineless okra and in research which showed that the yield of different varieties of lima beans was affected by varietal sensitivity to heat. He constructed a large map using colored pins to show the location and quantity of production of major vegetable crops in the United States. He constructed a large growth chamber in which plants could be grown with control of light, temperature and humidity.

Dr. Lewis became a graduate student in Plant Pathology at Cornell University in the fall of 1937 with minor studies in Horticulture. For three years, his time was divided among school work for six months each year, inspection work as needed to determine the amount of virus diseases in the seed potato fields in New York and conducting a series of fungicide trials on apples in northern New York. He was transferred to western New York in 1940 to study the diseases of apples, peaches, cherries and plums. He was appointed to the faculty of the Pennsylvania State University in 1943 with full-time assignment to what is now the Fruit Research and Extension Center in Biglerville. He was promoted to Professor of Plant Pathology in 1952 and to Scientist-in-Charge of the Fruit Research and Extension Center in 1963. He retired from that position in 1976.

He was the leader of the faculty at the Center at the time they and two directors of the Pennsylvania Agriculture Experiment Station, Dr. M. A. Farrell succeeded by Dr. R. E. Larson, decided to limit fruit pesticide research to university-owned property. Dr. Lewis served as local representative in the purchase of farm land and the construction of new buildings to house an expanded staff with modern equipment.

He also served for three years as Co-Chairman of the Research Program Steering Committee for Fruit Research in the 15 northeastern states and as a member, later Chairman and Editor, of the committee of the American Phytopathological Society which annually collected and published the results of all fungicide tests for agriculture in the United States. Locally, he served on the upper Adams School Board for one term, on the Board of Directors of the South Mountain Fair Association for 13 years and on the Arendtsville Municipal Authority at the time the watershed was expanded and a town sewer system was installed. He received a gold watch in 1953 for outstanding service to Adams County fruit growers and was honored in 1973 with the Outstanding Horticulturist Award of the State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania.

During his career, Dr. Lewis published the results of his research in two book chapters, 175 articles in state and national journals, in the fungicide reports published by national organizations, and in the annual pest control schedules for fruit in Pennsylvania and adjacent states.

After retirement from work on fruit, Dr. Lewis spent several years doing genealogical research on 14 generations of his branch of the Lewis family and wrote a book on the subject. He was convinced that a college education was highly valuable in seeking sucess in the modern world. Therefore, he provided words of encouragement and financial help whenever there was a need and he was in position to do something about it.

His first wife, Elizabeth Staves Lewis, died in 1991; his second wife, Mildred Taylor Heckenluber-Lewis, died in 2005 and he is survived by three children, Dr. Stephen A. Lewis and Robert T. Lewis, both of Six Mile, SC, Betty Lewis St. Cyr of Montclair, VA; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.