In Memoriam - Managing Change, Giving Back: Don Lewon

By David Pace

The College of Social & Behavioral Science lost an alumnus, supporter and exemplary leader earlier this year in Don Lewon BS’58 who passed away March 5, 2026 at age 89. Born in Montana, Lewon lived in Lewistown, enjoying small-town life until different business interests impelled his father to move the family to Salt Lake City in 1950.

A graduate of Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah, Lewon attended the University of Utah, where he graduated in geography with, according to his obituary, an emphasis in mining and metallurgy. Afterwards, he attended basic training for the Air Force Reserve and worked at the family equipment business (Lewon Brothers) in the San Francisco area while “dreaming of going to work in South America for one of the mining companies there.” 

Instead, he ended up with his father in Salt Lake at the family metal recycling business.

The family-run company’s success, according to Recycling Today, is due to what the industry sees as the admirable “ongoing exercise in managing change.” Lewon was president of Utah Metal Works (UMW) where he “steadied” recycling success at the center of America’s copper mining region. In the shadow of the massive Kennecott open-pit mine, copper mining has helped underpin Utah’s economy for decades, and copper is a staple of the recycling intake at UMW. It wasn’t always. Earlier, according to the article which appeared in 2019, it was lead-tin alloys such as linotype and solders. In the 50s/60s it stemmed from military surplus and scrap, then from industrial scrap and manufacturing while focusing on the insulated wire and cable beginning in 1978 and continuing today under the leadership of Lewon’s sons Chris and Mark who continue their father’s legacy at UMW. 

 

‘Junk men’

“We were known as junk men for more than half my life,” said Chris Lewon with a laugh. “Then in the 1990s we became recyclers: great title, great job. All the sudden we’re cool. Altruistic.” In fact, first and foremost, recycling made economic sense first; the product was less expensive than virgin materials, required less energy to produce, reduced space needed in landfills, and slowed the depletion of critical resources. “It’s a win-win-win situation,” says Chris. “Dad was a shouter from the rooftops of recycling and all things the industry can offer.” 

Today, purchasing departments factor recycled products into the costs and/or benefits of manufacturing. The reuse of scrap, drops, scraps and “fall offs” are now routinely integral in the manufacturing equation. What’s more, UMW and metal recycling in general is poised to help scale back the carbon footprint critical to managing climate change.  

“Every portion of energy consumption—carbon-based, renewable energies—all of them have a cost, and recycling of materials generally saves a tremendous amount of energy. On the metal side of things,” said Chris, referencing aluminum, “it’s 95 percent more energy efficient to recycle than creating aluminum from its origin in ore of bauxite.”

Returning to the legacy of his late father, Chris said Don “always wanted to be involved in grassroots kinds of initiatives,” a boots-on-the-ground sort of man, “not just someone writing a check, but being there.” Don also had a great sense of humor, wearing a handlebar mustache most of his adult life—the style mandated by his wife Sue—that turned up at the corners into a smile. “Just approaching him, he always had a smile on his face even though you couldn’t see his mouth. He had a smile for a moustache.” 

Chris and his older brother Mark bought out their father in 1999. (The family includes Anne, the youngest of three children.) “Dad had an inkling that it would be a better value for us,” Chris remembered, stepping back not when it was necessarily advantageous to him but because “he wanted to do that to maximize our benefit.” 

Active in the industry more broadly, Don Lewon served on various committees and leadership roles within the recycling industries trade associations of NARI, ISRI and ReMA. His willingness to strategically pivot in the relentlessly changing world of recycling also threaded its way through Don’s civic contributions. He participated long-term on the board of trustees for Wasatch Academy, and his talent for anticipating change in a thriving local business translated to larger, arguably more complex systems, social in nature, where he volunteered, including the Ronald McDonald House and United Way. He also served many terms on the vestry of The Cathedral Church of St. Mark (Episcopal) and in 2002 was named "Father of the Year" by the Utah Diabetes Association.

 

Philanthropic smile

Here at the U, Don was a founding member of the College of Social and Behavioral Science Advisory Board where he served for ten years and, from 1998 to 2000, served as its chair. Each year, the Lewons generously supported four honor roll scholarships in the College. 

Not only did Don always have on his mind the longevity of the recycling industry but he wanted institutions he cared deeply about to also be viable for years to come. 

During the 2017-18 academic year, the first two recipients of the then newly established Donald A. & Susan P. Lewon Scholarship were announced. Subsequently, as many as ten students have received the scholarship each year which provides funding for students pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree in CSBS.

The Lewons’ commitment to compassion and ethics as well as their many years of involvement at the U further underscored Don’s belief in education. He was always optimistic given the opportunities that are available here in the United States whether in recycling metal, sitting on a charitable board or funding a scholarship for the future workforce of the state and nation he called home.

And always with that mustachio-ed Don Lewon smile. 

by David Pace

 

You can make a donation to the Lewon Endowed Scholarship or investigate setting up a scholarship fund at the College of Social and Behavioral Science | University of Utah of your own by contacting Development Director Lynee Shaffer-Cusworth by email or by calling 801.213.6579.