Peter Benjamin Lewis (November 11, 1933 – November 23, 2013) was an
American businessman who was the chairman of
Progressive Insurance Company.
As of 2010, Progressive had grown to 27,250 employees, with sales of $15.0 billion and had become the third largest auto insurance company in the
United States.
In 2000, Lewis retired as
CEO of Progressive, though he remained as Chairman of the Board.
Lewis frequently donated money to charities and liberal political groups. He was a patron of the arts, even going so far as to display Andy Warhol's 10-part series of China's Chairman
Mao Zedong in 1974 at Progressive's office in Mayfield Village. Lewis's personal and corporate contemporary art collection is well known — the corporate collection is displayed at Progressive Insurance offices.
In September 2012 Lewis signed the
Giving Pledge promising to give at least half his wealth to charity, Lewis made donations to:
Princeton University (A
Frank Gehry designed science library, $60 million; the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, $55 million;
Lewis Center for the Arts, $101 million. Total $233 million to date.)
Case Western Reserve University (The
Weatherhead School of Management Peter B. Lewis Building, another Frank Gehry design, $36.9 million, out of $61.7 total building cost)
Marijuana Policy Project (Donated $3,000,000 to MPP in 2007.)
The Guggenheim Museum ($50 million)
America Coming Together and
MoveOn.org (with
George Soros matching his $10 and $2.5 million, respectively)
American Civil Liberties Union $15 million
The Democratic Party
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies-sponsored MDMA/PTSD Research in the US, Switzerland and Israel $750,000
Menorah Park (Peter B. Lewis Aquatic & Therapy Center)
Traction
Support of California's
Proposition 19 also known as the Regulate, Control & Tax Cannabis Act (
Donation of $159,005 on 10/15/2010)
Support for
Washington Initiative 502 with contributions totaling $2,038,700.
Oberlin College (The Peter B. Lewis Gateway Center, a hotel and conference center that will be the cornerstone of Oberlin’s Green Arts District; $5 million gift out of a total cost of $32 million.)
Lewis was an advocate of taxing and regulating the use and sale of
marijuana and was one of the main financial backers of the campaign to legalize the use of marijuana for
medical use in the United States.
In January 2000, Lewis was arrested and charged in
New Zealand for possession of
marijuana. Lewis pleaded guilty to three charges and paid a substantial fine, though under New Zealand law he was not required to serve time in jail or prison. According to his lawyer, Marie Dyhrberg, Lewis used the marijuana on the advice of his doctor for pain relief after the partial
amputation of his leg in 1998.
Lewis died of a heart attack at his home in
Coconut Grove, Florida on November 23, 2013 at the age of 80. He was interred at
Mayfield Cemetery in
Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
His net worth at the time of his death was $1.25 billion.