John Dowley (Jack) Lewis died Dec. 6 at St. John’s on the Lake in Milwaukee, Wisc. He was 88 and had lived in Milwaukee, spending winters in Tucson, Ariz., and summers on Martha’s Vineyard where his family roots date to the early 1900s.

Born in Evanston, Ill., he was the son of the late Dunbar Lewis and Gladys Dowley Lewis. He graduated from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill., and Princeton University where he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering. He served in the U.S. Navy at the end of World War II and was on one of the first ships at Bikini Atoll for the testing of the atomic bomb.

Jack started his career working for Owens Corning Fiberglass in Toledo, Ohio. He learned the foundry business working for Campbell Wyatt & Cannon in Muskegon, Mich., before becoming a manufacturer’s representative and starting his own sales business, Lewis Sales Company, selling industrial machinery and chrome plating. Later he owned Southern Plating and Wisconsin Chromium.

His family has been coming to the Vineyard since the turn of the 20th century when his grandfather, George B. Dowley bought a home on East Chop. His brother Ted Lewis owns the family home. In 1986 Jack and his wife Phoebe bought a home in West Tisbury. In 2006 they moved to Vineyard Haven. Jack was very fond of the Vineyard and his many relatives and friends on the Island. Jack was a longtime member of the East Chop Tennis Club.

He was a lifelong member of Rotary Club of Milwaukee and a founding member of the Rotary Club in South Haven, Mich. He co-chaired the first two Lakefront Festivals of the Arts in 1964 and 1965 at the Milwaukee Art Museum. He served on the board and then as chairman of the board of Piney Woods Country Life School in Jackson, Miss., a boarding school for African American children founded in 1909 to prepare students for careers and college. He was on the board of directors for Riveredge Nature Center, the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. He sang in his church choir and with the Bel Canto Chorus. One of Jack’s greatest passions was mountaineering; he went on the first ascent of Brussels Peak in Canada and one of the first winter climbs of the Grand Teton with Paul Petzold, a renowned climber and founder of National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). He served as a climbing guide in the Tetons during his college summers with his brother Ted. The two of them named Glencoe Spire in the Teton range. He was an avid worldwide traveler, and enjoyed hiking, tennis, squash, sailing, snorkeling, skiing and making sculptures from found natural objects.

He is survived by his loving wife of 65 years, Phoebe Reese Lewis; five children, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; a sister, Barbara Lewis Howell of Vineyard Haven and a brother Albert Theodore (Ted) Lewis and his wife Anne Heuer Lewis of Glenview, Ill.

A memorial service will be held on Dec. 21 at 4 p.m. at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Milwaukee, Wisc. Memorials can be made to Piney Woods Country Life School in Jackson, Miss., or the Martha’s Vineyard Museum.