Mass Set for Michael Lewis, Koll Co. Executive

A memorial Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Newport Beach for Michael L. Lewis, a Koll Co. executive who died Tuesday at his Laguna Beach home after an illness. He was 39.

Lewis was a senior vice president of development for the Newport Beach division of the Koll Co. responsible for operations in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. He was also director of development for Koll Center Irvine, a 95-acre, $1-billion commercial center that includes a major public art program.

Lewis was a director of the Irvine Theatre Operating Co. and a member of Art Spaces Irvine, a group of businessmen who support arts projects in the city. Through Lewis, the Koll Co. donated the first piece of public art on city-owned land in Irvine, a Mark Lear sculpture that stands outside the Heritage Park Regional Library.

“He was a marvelously compassionate man and very much a friend of the city of Irvine,” Councilwoman Sally Anne Sheridan said.

Lewis was a native of Whittier. He graduated from La Serna High School and USC. Before joining the Koll Co., Lewis worked in the real estate division of the Newport Beach office of Prudential Insurance Co. of America.

He is survived by his parents, John F. and Nancy Lewis of Del Mar, and four brothers: Tom, of Altadena; John, of Phoenix; Stuart, of Westport, Conn. and Bill, of San Gabriel.

Funeral services are private. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Irvine Theatre or the AIDS Services Foundation of Orange County.