Lewis formally joined AMORC in 1921. Following his father's death in 1939, Lewis became the leader (imperator) and was duly elected. In 1941, he, with several others, was sued by Jeannette Scott Seymour Young for her institutionalization in a mental hospital, which she claimed left her forcibly sterilized. She said Lewis had proposed marriage to her. Lewis denied this, saying she had gone to the mental hospital willingly. He also denied having ever been engaged to her, saying they had met a single time in 1934. He also said the hospital claimed she had never been sterilized there. In
Fédération Universelle des Ordres et Sociétés Initiatiques,
FUDOSI, he was known by the
nomen mysticum (mystical name)
Sar Validivar and received his initiation in
Martinism during the second convention of FUDOSI in September 1936. In the same year, he was initiated as a Rose-Croix Order Kabalistique and in the Traditional Martinist Order in Europe. On August 2, 1939, he was elected by the Board of Directors of the Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC as
Imperator of the order, a position he held until his Great Initiation on January 12, 1987. In March 1940, Lewis was elected
President of the International Supreme Council of the order Rosæ Crucis. Among the awards he received in his lifetime was the honorary degree of doctor of literature from
Andhra University in India, and the star and the cross of science from the International Academic Council. He founded the
Grand Lodge of Brazil in the summer of 1956, and he commissioned new buildings for the
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in 1966. Lewis died January 12, 1987. He was succeeded by
Gary L. Stewart. == Personal life ==