LOS ALAMITOS : Officers Pay Respects to Late Commander

Law enforcement officers from all over the county paid their respects Wednesday to a Los Alamitos police commander who died while exercising this weekend.

The funeral for Cmdr. Orville Lewis, a 24-year veteran responsible for creating Orange County’s Law Enforcement Explorers program, was attended by family members as well as hundreds of officers and friends in a packed room.

About 500 others watched the funeral via closed-circuit television in a nearby room. Outside, more than 80 police vehicles lined the street in front of Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church to lead a procession afterward to Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress.

“I see something here that Orville would not have liked, a lot of gloomy faces,” Police Chief James Guess told the audience. “Orville celebrated life.”

Lewis, 45, never regained consciousness Saturday after collapsing on a stairstepping machine at a health club, said Mickey Bennett, a close friend. He was taken to Los Alamitos Medical Center and died hours later.

On Sunday, Bennett said, at least seven of Lewis’ major organs were donated to other people statewide.

Lewis was born in Los Angeles but was reared in Los Alamitos. His first job with the city came at the age of 15, when he checked dogs to see if they had city licenses.

“It was obvious to him at an early age that law enforcement was his life and the city was the center of it,” Bennett recalled.

Lewis worked his way up from reserve officer to commander. In the early 1970s, he organized meetings for local youngsters interested in law enforcement. It later became the Law Enforcement Explorers program.

“It started out as a search-and-rescue idea,” said Cmdr. Gary Biggerstaff, a former partner of Lewis. “I don’t know what we’d search and rescue for in Los Alamitos, but it sounded good.”

Lewis was disappointed that he did not get promoted to chief, many said. But when the selection committee for the Police Department suggested that he get experience elsewhere first, he declined because he did not want to leave the city.

He is survived by wife, Kathy, three children and two grandchildren.