...With Lifetime Achievement Award

George Lewison (seen here in the middle, between AEA's Michael O'Leary and AEA President Paula Derks) was honored Thursday morning, during Opening Ceremonies at the 46th Annual Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) Convention and Trade Show in Orlando (FL), as AEA's Lifetime Achievement Award Winner for 2003.

Lewison, a longtime friend to many AEA members, was born in San Antonio (TX) on June 9, 1916, the oldest of three children. He remembers his father's love of radios and when he first brought home a crystal radio set.

By putting the headset in a large glass bowl, the whole family could hear it. This was just the beginning or Lewison's fascination with the world of radios.

While in elementary school in Glendale (CA), Lewison made friends with a fellow radio enthusiast and soon they were into amateur radios, building their own transceivers from plans in Popular Mechanic Magazine.

"We both built a ham transceiver from the Popular Mechanic plans ... neither one of them worked ... but that got me extremely interested in radio communication," Lewison recalls.

At the age of 13, Lewison took the FCC test and got his amateur radio license. After high school, he enrolled in Frank Wiggins Technical School. Upon graduation, he took the FCC First Class Commercial Radio Telephone License test and missed only one question out of 100.

He immediately went to work for Bendix Radio as a technician. After working for Bendix for nine years, he went to work for Qualitron Aero in Burbank. After that he headed to Airesearch Aviation, where he spent 33 years.

The last five years of his time spent with Airesearch, he was avionics manager for the Long Beach facility. He handled engineering and certification for the busy facility, and developed their FAA Designated Alteration Station.

In 1986, Lewison went to to work for Gulfstream Aerospace as senior marketing executive, where he  was involved in writing an extremely large completion specification for G3 and G4 aircraft. He was traveling worldwide to visit Gulfstream customers.

During this time Lewison also served on AEA's board of directors.

He retired from Gulfstream in 1993 at the age of 77, but remains active in the industry to this day, as a consultant.

Lewison also writes monthly articles for Avionics News magazine.

Lewison is a member of The Air Force Association, The Aero Club of Southern California and The Los Angeles World Affair Council.

He currently lives in Redondo Beach (CA) with his wife, Gertrude. They have three children, Mitzi, Terry and David.

FMI: www.aea.net