Harriet Lewis, chairperson of Gerber Plumbing Fixtures Corp. and a beloved plumbing industry citizen, passed away Sept. 24 of a heart attack at age 81. She was the daughter of company founder Max Gerber and sister of former company CEO Oscar Gerber, who died in 1983.
Harriet Gerber Lewis was one of the first women who has steered a manufacturing company through decades of financial and marketing growth. Since 1953 when she assumed the helm of Gerber Plumbing Fixtures Corporation, the company's annual sales volume increased more than ten-fold, from 7.5 million to approximately $107 million at the close of 1998.