Peter Lewis '55: Doling out money from the high seas

"I'm spending a lot of my life in the lap of luxury," Peter Lewis '55 said last week from his $16.5 million yacht off the shore of Lake Michigan. "But when I'm not, I try to do constructive things with our money and our experience."

Lewis retired in 2000 after 35 years as CEO of Progressive, Inc., now the nation's third-largest auto insurance provider. The billionaire owns several houses but prefers to spend his time drifting on the world's waters on a 255-foot converted ocean tug named Lone Ranger.

"My business career led me to the American dream, and I became quite wealthy," Lewis said. "But then the question was, what do you do if you're quite wealthy?"

The answer, for Lewis at least, is to figure out how to use that money — usually by giving it away through a "personal, private, unpredictable, totally flexible process that I manage myself."

The philanthropist, who grew up in a middle-class home and did not acquire significant wealth until age 40, has contributed tens of millions to organizations including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Case Western Reserve University and United Jewish Appeals.

Most famously, Lewis, alongside fellow billionaires George Soros and John Sperling, has donated millions to the campaign to legalize marijuana.

But the greatest of Lewis's financial gifts have been to his alma mater.

"Of all the places I have looked at to contribute, my impression is that Princeton does the best with the money," he explained. "It's the quality of how the institution is managed and how it performs that makes it a better place to give money."

The $116 million Lewis has contributed makes him the University's largest single donor. His money helped fund the recently opened Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics as well as the planned science library to be designed by architect Frank Gehry.

Lewis served as a University trustee from 1998 to 2002 — primarily as a benefactor, he said — and was reelected to another four-year term this year.

He wanted to be a trustee in part because of "the honor and recognition implicit," but also because of the unique role the Board plays in shaping the University.

"The trustees really do run the University, and they're doing a good job," he said. "It's a pleasure to be one of that group. They're marvelous people, and I take pride in what they accomplish."

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Lewis spoke with obvious respect for his alma mater, which he credits for much of his own success.

"It starts out with its vision to be the best, and a total commitment that the way you get there is to have the very best people at every level. And then you do what you have to do to accomplish that, like the facilities and scholarships," he said.

"Everyone else watches to find out what it requires so they can be second. It's a unique pleasure to be a part of that, whether you're a student or alumnus," he added.

The native of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, described himself as "provincial" before he came to the University. He grew up in a middle-class home. His father was a lawyer who co-founded Progressive in 1937, and his mother stayed at home.

With his father's death during his senior year in college, Lewis wasn't even sure he would be able to complete his degree. He managed to finish out the year, however, and is thankful he did.

"I don't think I ever would have accomplished what I did without Princeton," he said. "I experienced a level of quality aspiration that I never even knew existed."

Lewis got married five days after graduation and, two weeks later, started work as a clerk in the offices of Progressive. He soon graduated from filing papers and answering the phone to adding up figures and managing the stockroom, and eventually moved into sales.

Within a decade, he put together a leveraged buyout of the company and took control of the roughly 100 employees at the time. At 31, Lewis had become CEO.

When he retired from that post 35 years later, Progressive employed 20,000 people, and its revenues had gone from $6 million to more than one billion. It was the fourth largest auto insurance provider in the country and a major Fortune 500 company.

How did the Wilson School major end up as such a successful corporate executive? "I never had one iota of interest in public policy," Lewis said, explaining that his skills all came from on-the-job training.

Throughout most of his career, modest contributions at Annual Giving and appearances at a few reunions were the extent of his involvement with the University.

"I graduated, got married and worked," he said. "I barely thought about Princeton for 30 years. I always appreciated it, but I was busy doing what I did."

Lewis has been much more active in the past decade, making his first large contribution shortly after becoming a trustee. He now visits campus several times a year and spoke approvingly of the direction in which the University is headed.

"The beautiful thing about Princeton is that it's in a state of constant improvement," Lewis said, "and I think that's the best way to define excellence: always improving."

The greatest change at the University since Lewis's time has been the addition of women, he said, with everything else "a distant second."

But he also commended President Tilghman and the trustees for the recent changes in the University's financial aid policy and the decision to increase the undergraduate student body.

"We're making a Princeton education available to more people, both financially and in terms of more numbers, and I think we're doing a great job," he said. "We've already got the best university education, and now we're offering it to more people."

In 1999, in honor of his graduating class — the Class of 1955 — Lewis decided to donate $55 million to the University, $35 million of which has gone toward the genomics institute.

He named the institute for his friend and college roommate Paul Sigler, a renowned biologist who passed away in 2000.

"It's lovely," he said. "Everyone's happy, I'm happy. My money goes to the professors — what do I know?"

Two years later, at a conversation at former President Harold Shapiro's retirement party, the idea for the science library surfaced. The two are both great appreciators of Frank Gehry, and Shapiro confided that he hoped to construct a Gehry building on campus.

" 'I don't think you can do it,' " Lewis recalled telling Shapiro, " 'but if you can, I'll fund it.' "

Two years and $60 million dollars later, that science library is on its way to becoming a reality. Current plans place the library between Fine and Peyton Halls.

Some of Lewis's causes are more controversial, however. Lewis recently made the news for his involvement in the campaign to legalize marijuana and was featured in a TIME cover story entitled "Has America Gone to Pot?"

"I think the drug laws are absurd in every sense, all of them," said Lewis, who was arrested in New Zealand on drug charges three years ago. "Based on the experience I've had with scotch whiskey, which is plenty, and the experience I've had with marijuana, which is plenty, I think it should be regulated the same way alcohol is."

Lewis has led numerous local and state initiatives to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, but his political activism extends beyond this one issue. He recently helped fund the formation of America Coming Together, a political organization dedicated to identifying and registering Democratic voters for the upcoming election.

Though Lewis did not endorse a candidate for the Democratic nomination, he emphasized the need to remove the current administration from office.

"It's increasingly important as freedoms are threatened these days at a level that I've never experienced," he said.

Wherever he chooses to give his money, though, the self-described "spokesperson for responsible philanthropy" takes care to ensure that it is used well.

"You have a responsibility to make sure it's spent properly," he said. "What I've discovered is that most nonprofit institutions are run terribly, worse than the government. The trustees are not responsible — they're just there because it looks good on the social pages."

As a result, Lewis said, these organizations are failing.

He draws upon his own experience in management, which "makes me think I'm smart, makes me think I know what I'm talking about" when working with the institutions to which he gives.

But the basic principles of responsible philanthropy do not require extensive knowledge, he explained — they merely involve having a plan and following up regularly.

"They're simple lessons, but nobody does it," he said. "That's what's amazing. It's not mysterious."

Amidst all the causes and institutions he is involved in, Lewis still has plenty of time left over to travel the world in his yacht and live the leisurely life of the wealthy. Having achieved success beyond most businessmen's dreams, the 70-year-old is now content to bankroll his pet projects and spend time with his three children and three grandchildren.

"I'm done climbing great mountains," he said, "and I hope I continue to be happy and healthy, and to continue to contribute to society in modest ways."