TAPS: Passing of CAPT (Ret) Paul “Scott” Lewis, 74, on 30 March 2024   

Paul “Scott” Lewis, age 74, of Colorado Springs, Colorado passed away peacefully on the morning of Saturday, 30 March 2024. 

Scott was born in Owensboro, Kentucky on 25 March 1950 to Paul and Jane Lewis. He was the older of two children, and he discovered his love of music early on by teasing his little sister with his harmonica. 

He met his wife, Tonya Lanham, at Owensboro Catholic High School. They dated while he attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and two and a half weeks after his commissioning into the U.S. Navy on 7 June, were married on 24 June 1972. 

As a career intelligence officer, they traveled with the Navy all over the world from Israel to the Philippines while raising four children. Their favorite time overseas was the five years they spent in Italy, first in the small town of Gaeta and later in Rome, where he would serve as Naval Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in the final years of the Cold War. Scott finished his 27-year Navy career as the Director of Intelligence at NORAD and U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 

After he retired from the military in 2000, he worked for a few more years in the private sector as a federal consultant before fully retiring from the workforce. He spent a lot of his time enjoying the creation of art in many mediums: he painted and crafted, and was self-taught on the fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, and banjo among other instruments. He passed his artistic drive to his children where it continues to live in them today. A man of deep and unshakeable Catholic faith, he felt close to God when surrounded by nature, especially the Rocky Mountains. 

Scott is survived by his loving wife Tonya; his four devoted children: Kyle (and Veronica) of Mt Laurel, NJ, John (and Lisa) of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Patrick (and Susan) of Boston, Massachusetts, and Teresa (and Brian Lambert) of Denver, Colorado; his sister Paulanne Branson of Richmond, Virginia; nine grandchildren: Jackson, Dominic, Isaac, Jonah, and Katie Lewis, and Anthony, Ella, Mari, and Kristin Lambert; and three step-grandchildren: Jack, Maria, and Dean Lye-McElroy. 

The funeral mass was held on Monday, 8 April at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, 2650 Parish View, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80919. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be given to St. Vincent De Paul.