Denver was the site of the first Billy Graham Crusade in 1967 in the Rocky Mountains, and the year after the crusade we had a weeklong conference for the Christian business and professional community.  It was during this week that I met Jerry and Marthadell Lewis.

     They were a terrific couple, and very involved in the community. Jerry had recently started “Petro-Lewis” which ended up being one of the largest oil and natural gas partnership companies in the world. As a matter of fact, in one four year period of time, they had sold over 3.5 billion dollars worth of partnerships.

     In 1971, we built a home six blocks away from them in Cherry Hills1, and shortly after our move out to our new home, Jerry sponsored me into YPO (Young Presidents Organization). I enjoyed that relationship in YPO very much, and I saw Jerry at least once a month. He had a great heart for God and supported Kingdom cause every time he got a chance, both physically and financially. He and Marthadell were terrific together and their positive attitudes were positively infectious on those around them.

     There was a tremendous amount of activity around Colorado in the energy business in the early and middle 70’s. Then President Carter named Denver as the energy capital of the world, and that action sent Jerry and the other energy leaders into orbit. Petro-Lewis took off on a growth curve practically straight up. They went public and the Lewis’s became multi-millionaires overnight with a very successful public offering. We bought stock on the initial offering, and every time the stock split (about 14 times) we donated the split to a Christian charity, so we were grateful to the stock appreciation as well.

     Jerry was working very hard to handle all of this success, and still be humble. He was involved with several accountability groups and they were a tremendous help to him through the very volatile oil prices that created unusually large peak and valley swings in the industry. Marthadell and Jerry kept supporting causes with their resources and did some wonderful long lasting gifting of their Cherry Hills and Vail homes to a foundation. They made use of these properties available to small groups for fellowship weeks and weekends and it was a terrific concept, and helped to change many lives.

     Jery saw a need for men to be able to fellowship together, and come alongside of each other when one or the other of the group was having a difficult time. It was just tremendous the way he encouraged men to reach out to each other. He had a couple of these groups over at the Cherry Hills Country Club, which have been meeting for 40 years, what a blessing that was to so many men.

     With all of the business and spiritual opportunities they always made time for their three children on a high priority basis. As a result, a lot of the activities at the Cherry Hills and Vail homes were family oriented and were particularly oriented in conjunction with “Young Life”. Jerry served on their national board for over 12 years, and helped to shape the loves of hundreds of young people.

     When the bubble finally burst on the oil industry, the Petro-Lewis stock started downhill from a high of $42 a share. Jerry saw what was happening, but by the time he was able to reduce his operation down by over 90%, it was too late to save the company. As a result, he started looking for options and was finally able to sell the company for 75¢ a share and at least give the creditor and shareholders something for their money.

     It was very reassuring to see both Jerry and Marthadell handle this drastically reduced lifestyle and business collapse with such a high degree of concern for so many others. It was more than ten years later that I asked Jerry to share his story at a Vision and Values seminar and for a different group of business and professional people here in San Diego.