Salim L. "Cy" Lewis was the Managing Partner of Bear, Stearns & Company, running the company from 1949 until shortly before his death in 1978.
Background
Salim or "Cy" was born Salim Lissner Lewis on October 5, 1908, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Max Lewis and Hattie Lissner Lewis, Orthodox Jews. Cy was their first child. A sister, Isabel Alma Lewis, was born later.
Max, who was 46 at his son"s birth, was born in western Russia or eastern Poland in 1862, and came to The United States in 1877 at 15, at which time he changed his last name to Lewis.
Max"s wife, Hattie Lissner, was born in Massachusetts of German Jewish parents who immigrated in the mid 19th century.
Education
Salim L. Lewis attended Boston University for three semesters, and dropped out because he could not afford tuition.
Career
Their marriage was their first and only. Though he was asthmatic, he played left guard in weekend professional football in Boston for a while (a time when professional football paid $50–$75 a game). In 1927, he moved to Philadelphia for a short time to sell shoes.
Lewis married once.
She had had children by neither husband. Her maiden name was Diana Frances Bonnor. Her mother"s maiden name was Laura Felger.
Diana"s father was Frederick Charles Dempster Bonnor, and he was called Fred.
Fred Bonnor was an Englishman who came to the states alone when he was 15. He was the youngest of three sons.
This was his fifth and last place of employment on Wall Street. The $20,000 contribution was part of a divorce settlement with Diana Bonnor"s 2nd husband.
Bear, Stearns was capitalized at about $500,000 at the time.
Lewis effectively managed Bear, Stearns throughout the war without title. With "by far the largest percentage of the profits., Cy Lewis ran Bear, Stearns & Company, a general partnership, from 1949 to his death. At 9:40, the evening of his retirement at the Harmonie Club on 60th just off Fifth Avenue on Thursday, April 26, 1978, Lewis suffered a mild stroke while unwrapping a gold Piaget retirement watch, a gift from his partners.
He fell to the floor and retained consciousness.
He had had other strokes. He suffered more strokes the following day and died two days later, at 6:42 on Saturday evening at Mount Sinai Hospital in the care of Allen H. Unger Doctor of Medicine, his personal physician.
Membership
Salim L. Lewis joined & Company, a general partnership and member of The New York Stock Exchange and other exchanges.