Sydney Lewis

In 1942, he married Frances (née Aronson) whom he had met in college. They had three children, the antiwar activist and entrepreneur Sydney Lewis Jr., Andrew Marc Lewis and Susan Lewis Butler. Andrew was president and chief operating officer of Best Products and his daughter was director of the corporate foundation. Sydney and Frances Lewis were awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1987.

Sydney Lewis died on March 12, 1999, at the age of 79. Frances Lewis died on January 10, 2026, at the age of 103.

Lewis is the namesake of Lewis Hall at the Washington and Lee University School of Law, whose construction he and his wife, Frances, funded in 1976.

In the early 1960's, the Lewises began collecting contemporary art, concentrating at first on Pop Art and Photo Realism. Over the next 20 years they amassed an enormous collection and became close friends with many artists. He developed a barter system with young artists in New York where they could trade art for items in the Best Products catalog.

In the early 1970's, the Lewises began traveling to Europe and building substantial collections of Art Nouveau and French Art Deco works. According to The New York Times, "in 1985, the couple donated more than 1,500 artworks to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, making it the home of the most important collection of Art Nouveau outside Paris and of an especially beautiful selection of Tiffany lamps." Lewis and his wife would remain benefactors of the museum for many years.

Lewis and his wife were supporters of the progressive candidate Henry Howell.