About Thomas Eugene Lewis (1960-2011)
Biography
Thomas “Thom” Eugene Lewis was born on October 15, 1960, in Maryland. He studied biology and graduated from the University of Maryland and Texas A&M University. Lewis was enthusiastic about the outdoors, particularly enjoying backpacking. He married JoAnne Whittington, who shared his passion for wildlife and conservation. Together, they became strong supporters of the Florida Wild Mammal Association, and they would foster rescued and orphaned wildlife in their home. In the early 1980s, Lewis became a crane caretaker at Patuxent Research Refuge in Maryland and worked on a whooping crane disturbance study at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. In 1992, he began his U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) career as a biologist at St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. During his 16 years at the Refuge, he also served as the coordinator of the red wolf breeding program and coauthored protocol for rearing wolves in island refuges. More than 20 red wolf cubs returned to the wild from the pack he helped care for, and Lewis’s work contributed to red wolves becoming the first species in the United States to be successfully reintroduced into the wild after extinction. In 2008, Lewis decided to pursue his life-long dream to become a pilot-biologist, and he became a pilot-biologist intern for the Migratory Bird Surveys at the Patuxent Research Refuge in Maryland, where he dutifully served until his death.
Cause of Death
On June 23, 2011, Lewis was practicing touch-and-go landing maneuvers at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in a Beechcraft C24R Sierra, a small airplane. David A. Miles, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who served as Lewis’s flight instructor, accompanied Lewis during this early morning practice. At 4:30 a.m., the small airplane crashed next to a runway after being in the air for approximately a half hour. Both Lewis and Miles died in the crash.
Sources:
“Red Wolf Recovery Program.” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Social Security Administration, “Thomas Eugene Lewis.” U.S., Social Security Death Index Master File, Maryland, 2011.
Stehn, Tom. “Whooping Crane Recovery Activities: October 2010 – August 2011”. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 31 Aug. 2011.
“Thomas E. Lewis.” Find A Grave.
“Thomas Lewis.” McCully Polyniak & Collins Funeral Home, 23 June 2011.
“Thomas Lewis Obituary.” Maryland Gazette, Legacy.com, 2 Jul. 2011.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “In Memoriam.” Waterfowl Population Status, 2011, 22 July 2011.
“Volunteers Bid Biologist Thom Lewis A Fond Farewell.” St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge, 2008.