Alan Lewis Net Worth: Late Grand Circle Corp Chairman

Alan Lewis, the owner and chairman of Boston travel company Grand Circle Corporation, died on November 2, 2022, at age 74, at his home in Kensington, New Hampshire (Boston Globe). Earlier versions of this page described him as a living 52-year-old and gave a $7 million net worth with no source; both were wrong, and the figure has been removed. No reputable outlet published an estimate of his fortune. What is documented is far larger than that old number suggested: he turned a loss-making tour company into a business with more than $600 million in yearly gross sales, while he and his wife gave away over $250 million.

What was Alan Lewis's net worth?

There is no published net worth figure for Lewis from Forbes, Bloomberg or any similar source. Grand Circle and the family's investment company are private, so their values were never disclosed. The $7 million figure on this page, and the $22.2 million that appeared in its FAQ, had no source.

The public record does show the scale of his wealth. According to Seatrade Cruise News, Lewis and his wife Harriet bought Grand Circle in 1985 when it had about $23 million in sales and was losing $2 million a year, and built it into a company with more than $600 million in gross sales, over 35 offices and about 3,000 employees, guides and ship crew. His family office, Kensington Investment Company, owns residential and commercial property in Boston, Utah and across New England. The couple's giving alone, more than $250 million to over 500 projects in 50 countries according to the family (Boston Globe), is many times the figure this page once reported.

Alan Lewis's yearly earnings and income

His personal income was never disclosed. The table on the previous version of this page ($7 million a year, $84,000 a month, $2,800 a day) was unsourced and internally inconsistent, and has been removed. As owner of Grand Circle and Kensington Investment, his income would have come from company profits and investment returns rather than a salary, and neither company reports those.

Early life and family

Lewis was born in Boston on July 17, 1948 (Boston Globe). His parents split up when he was a baby, and while living with his mother in Dorchester he moved 14 times before he turned 7. From age 5 he spent summers with his maternal grandmother in Kensington, New Hampshire, a town his mother's family had helped settle in the 1600s. His father, Edward Lewis, ran a small travel business called United Travel Service.

He attended Newton South High School, graduating in 1966 (Seacoastonline). He left college after a year and worked as a lifeguard in Miami before his father talked him into joining the family travel business. The earlier claims on this page about a studious, bookish childhood had no source and do not match his own account.

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Alan Lewis's wife

Lewis met Harriet Rothblatt at Newton South High School. They married in 1972 and celebrated their 50th anniversary a month before he died. They co-wrote the 2010 book Driving With No Brakes about building their business. Harriet chaired the Lewis Family Foundation. They had two children, Edward and Charlotte, who run Kensington Investment Company as CEO and COO (Seatrade; family obituary).

Career timeline

Sources: Boston Globe, Seatrade Cruise News, family obituary, Boston Business Journal, Travel Weekly.

Grand Circle Corporation

Grand Circle Travel was founded in 1958 by retired high school principal Ethel Andrus to serve members of her new organization, the American Association of Retired Persons. Under Lewis it became Grand Circle Corporation, a group aimed at American travelers over 50 that includes Grand Circle Travel, Overseas Adventure Travel and Grand Circle Cruise Line (Seatrade). Seacoastonline reported that the company operates in 85 countries and that some customers had traveled with it 20 or 30 times. Lewis described his method as stopping what does not work and pushing hard on what does, and he told staff to put people first and to judge success by excellence rather than profit.

He also co-owned the cruise ship Paul Gauguin with his brother Hank Lewis of Vantage Deluxe World Travel, according to Seatrade.

Philanthropy

With Harriet, Lewis was one of Greater Boston's biggest donors. The family says they gave more than $250 million to over 500 projects in 50 countries. Their giving ranged from the West End House Boys & Girls Club and the Boston Foundation's StreetSafe Boston youth violence program to Bears Ears National Monument in Utah and solar projects in villages in India and Tanzania (Boston Globe). In New Hampshire, land trusts credited him with helping conserve several farms and forests. He built Alnoba, a 600-acre retreat and leadership center on his family's land in Kensington, and gave the town a 35-acre park with lit ball fields (family obituary).

His awards included recognition from Paul Newman's Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy and Ernst & Young's New England Social Entrepreneur of the Year (Seacoastonline).

Age, height and weight

Lewis was 74 when he died in 2022. The previous version of this page gave his age as 52 and listed a height and weight, none of which had a source; they have been removed.

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Why no net worth figure is given

Grand Circle's gross sales tell us how much travel it sold, not what it earned, and neither Grand Circle nor Kensington Investment disclosed profits or valuations. No outlet with a record of valuing private fortunes published an estimate for Lewis during his life or after his death. Rather than guess, we report the known facts: a travel group with more than $600 million in gross sales, a family real estate and investment company, plus over $250 million given away.