who bought grand circle travel

Alan E. Lewis, travel industry executive and philanthropist, dies at 74

By his own description, Alan Lewis’s youthful years in Boston were eventful and unsettled. His parents split up when he was an infant in Dorchester, and while living with his mother, he moved 14 times in seven years.

“I was rebellious and ran with some rough company,” Mr. Lewis later wrote , “and I got into trouble at every turn.”

Leaving college after a year, he got a job as a lifeguard in Miami, where he made headlines saving a swimmer’s life. His father visited soon after and was unimpressed at the heroics.

“We got into a huge argument over the direction in my life,” Mr. Lewis wrote in “Driving With No Brakes,” a 2010 memoir. “Actually, it was over its lack of direction. Was I going to be a lifeguard for the rest of my life?”

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Heeding unsolicited paternal advice, he took a job with his father’s small travel business and soon launched his own company, the first steps toward becoming one of the most successful travel industry entrepreneurs in Boston.

Mr. Lewis, who was chairman of the Grand Circle Corp. international travel conglomerate and chairman of Kensington Investment Co. , died of an apparent cardiac event at his Kensington, N.H., home Wednesday . He was 74 and divided his time between Boston and Kensington, a small town that his maternal ancestors helped to settle in the 1600s.

With his wife, Harriet, Mr. Lewis was among Greater Boston’s most prolific and wide-ranging philanthropists. The couple and their foundations have given in excess of $250 million to more than 500 projects in 50 countries, according to the Lewis family.

Over the years, Lewis family donations also have helped fund local organizations and programs such as the West End House Boys & Girls Club and The Boston Foundation’s StreetSafe Boston initiative to reduce youth violence. The couple created a community advisory group to work with organizations including Artists for Humanity and Freedom House, according to The Boston Foundation.

Nationally and internationally, their philanthropic contributions have helped programs at the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, a bee project run by the Maijuna indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon, and solar power initiatives in villages in India and Tanzania.

While building his first travel business, selling it, buying and building another travel company, and then launching a philanthropic life that didn’t fit established models, Mr. Lewis developed a philosophy that he was eager to share.

“Break the rules,” he said in an interview at the University of New Hampshire a couple of years ago that is posted on YouTube .

“Just keep breaking ‘em. Keep making mistakes,” he said, adding that “this world wants you in a box. The world is pushing you into a small box. Break the rules.”

Born in Boston on July 17, 1948, Alan Elliot Lewis was a son of Elizabeth Sawyer Getter and Edward Lewis.

“My parents divorced when I was a young child, and I saw my father only on occasion,” Mr. Lewis wrote, “but each encounter left an indelible imprint.”

Along with running United Travel Service, a travel business that provided Alan’s entry-level initiation into the industry, Edward was a convicted bookmaker.

Mr. Lewis credited his father with teaching him to always help the underdog. And Mr. Lewis said his childhood — with its repeated changes of address — provided inadvertent preparation for his career in the adventure travel industry.

“Every new place I had a fight because I was a new kid in the block, and that helped me get ready for my life,” he said of his youth in the UNH interview. “It was great for me because I got used to change. I got used to adapting to new places.”

Childhood also brought him to the place he considered his spiritual home. When he was 5, his mother began putting him on a bus in Boston to send him to visit his maternal grandmother, Ruth Sawyer, in Kensington.

In the late 1970s, Mr. Lewis and his wife bought land in Kensington from his great uncle. They expanded their holdings to 600 acres, which are now home to what is known as Alnoba , a retreat, leadership, and wellness facility.

“He always called it a sacred spiritual place,” said Martha Prybylo, executive vice president for social mission at Alnoba. “He walked that property any time of the day and felt a special responsibility to care for his ancestors’ land.”

While at Newton South High School, Mr. Lewis met Harriet Rothblatt. They dated briefly, and became a couple in their 20s.

“I was raised in a traditional New England family with my eyes set on college,” she wrote in “Driving With No Brakes,” which they coauthored. “Alan was a street-savvy kid with big dreams and a colorful past. You can see the attraction.”

They married in 1972, the year before he cofounded Trans National Travel, and celebrated their 50th anniversary last month.

In the mid-1980s, they sold their interest in their travel agency, known as TNT, in order to travel more themselves and devote additional time to their two children.

Then Mr. Lewis heard that Grand Circle Travel was for sale. The company was losing $2 million a year when they bought it in 1985. The couple turned it into a business with more than $600 million in annual revenue and 35 offices around the world.

They founded Grand Circle Corp., which also includes two other travel businesses they acquired, and Kensington Investment to handle the family’s real estate and investment holdings, and its philanthropy.

Harriet chairs the Lewis Family Foundation. Their daughter, Charlotte of Marblehead, is Kensington’s chief operating officer. Their son, Edward of Park City, Utah, is Kensington’s chief executive officer.

Along with three grandchildren, Mr. Lewis also leaves a brother, Hank, with whom he has had well-publicized business disagreements that became court cases. In addition, Mr. Lewis leaves two half-siblings, Steven Rittenberg and Susan Lewis.

Burial will be private, and the family will sit shiva Monday through Friday beginning at 4 p.m. at Alnoba in Kensington.

“He made so much time to be in our lives, either physically or through phone calls or through letters or through e-mail,” Charlotte said of her father.

“He really was such a loving man,” she said. “He was the biggest mentor, the biggest coach, the biggest supporter: ‘I’m always in your corner and I always have your back.’ "

Mr. Lewis, she added, “had a serious code, and that was to tell the truth and chase after your dreams,” even when that meant pushing through challenging times.

“The last thing he said to me was, ‘Be comfortable being uncomfortable,’ and that’s how I want to live my life,” Charlotte said.

Particularly in his later years, Mr. Lewis became more reflective, writing in journals and sending “beautiful letters to his associates and friends,” Charlotte said.

Though Mr. Lewis “was a serious man, he also liked to have fun,” she said, and to the end he insisted others do as well.

Before Mr. Lewis died, he had planned to accompany his son to a beach for surfing, “but he was feeling tired and decided to lie down,” Charlotte said. “His last words to Edward were, ‘Go and have fun.’ "

Bryan Marquard can be reached at [email protected] .

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Driving With No Brakes Paperback – August 20, 2010

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Print length 268 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Alan and Harriet Lewis
• Publication date August 20, 2010
• ISBN-10 0615377823
• ISBN-13 978-0615377827
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Alan and Harriet Lewis; First Edition (August 20, 2010)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 268 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0615377823
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0615377827
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.01 pounds
• Best Sellers Rank: #2,524,419 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books )

About the authors

Alan Lewis is owner and chairman of Grand Circle Corporation and co-author of "Driving With No Brakes: How a bunch of hooligans built the best travel company in the world" (September, 2010).

In 1985, Alan and his wife acquired Grand Circle Travel for $9 million. At the time, the company generated $27 million in sales from one office-- and was losing $2 million a year. Under Alan's leadership over the last twenty-five years, Grand Circle has grown into a highly profitable international travel company with annual sales in excess of $600 million. The company owns or charters 60 ships and employs 2,300 associates in 30 plus offices worldwide. Each year, Grand Circle and its affiliate, Overseas Adventure Travel, are responsible for taking more than 119,000 American travelers to 100 countries around the world. Despite an uncertain economy, the rise of the online travel industry, and more than 300 crises that shuttered the doors of many major competitors, Alan keeps the company flourishing: it has been growing at a rate of nearly 20 percent per year for the last two decades.

As Alan reveals in his book "Driving With No Brakes", Grand Circle survived and thrived all of these tumultuous years due to his integration of six core values and philanthropic mission into the company's business strategy. Such values, which include risk taking, open and courageous communication, and thriving in change, have made the company fast, flexible and easily adaptable when faced with regional and world crises - including 9/11, SARS and the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland - and spurred the development of a team of strong, skillful and committed leaders. Alan's commitment to incorporating philanthropy into the company's core business strategy led to the establishment of Grand Circle Foundation, which supports communities in which Grand Circle works and travels, and through which the organization has donated or pledged more than $50 million to educational, humanitarian and cultural endeavors worldwide, including support to more than 100 schools in 60 villages.

Alan has received several awards for innovation in philanthropy, business and the workplace, among them the late Paul Newman's Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy for philanthropic innovation and leadership and Ernst & Young's New England Social Entrepreneur of the Year. The company receives annual recognitions by readers of "Condé Nast Traveler" and "Travel + Leisure" and has been named one of the top 25 best medium-sized companies to work for in the U.S. for by "HR Magazine" and the Best Places to Work Institute.

In "Driving with No Brakes", co-authored with Harriet, Alan offers a brutally honest reflection on Grand Circle's successes and failures, and highlights important business choices and strategies that have propelled it to become one of the world's leading travel companies. The book offers a case for how leaders within any industry can make their businesses more profitable and more generous.

Harriet Lewis

Harriet Lewis is owner and vice chair of Grand Circle Corporation, the largest U.S. direct market tour operator of international vacations for older Americans; chair of Grand Circle Foundation, the organization's charitable arm; and co-author of "Driving With No Brakes: How a bunch of hooligans built the best travel company in the world" (September, 2010). A former teacher, she helps drive Grand Circle's mission to enhance the lives of its travelers, its global workforce and the communities where Grand Circle lives and operates.

In 1985, when Harriet and her husband Alan purchased Grand Circle Travel, the travel company generated $27 million in sales from one office-- and was losing $2 million a year. Twenty-five years later, Grand Circle has grown into a highly profitable international travel company with annual sales in excess of $600 million. The company owns or charters 60 ships and employs 2,300 associates in 30 plus offices worldwide. Each year, Grand Circle and its affiliate, Overseas Adventure Travel, are responsible for taking more than119,000 American travelers to 100 countries around the world.

Along the way, Harriet's commitment to creating a supportive work environment has led to one of the most generous and comprehensive benefits programs in the nation, highlighted by paid employee sabbaticals, free and low-cost overseas travel, and tuition reimbursement for courses promoting both professional and personal growth. In 1995, she created the company's Women's Development Network, which evolved into a leadership program for men and women at all levels of management. She also helped establish Grand Circle's Pinnacle Leadership Center, a 400-acre outdoor facility in New Hampshire, which uses an experiential learning model to train employees in teamwork, risk taking and leadership building.

Harriet and Alan's shared commitment to philanthropy led to the establishment in 1992 of Grand Circle Foundation, which has since donated or pledged more than $50 million to educational, humanitarian and cultural organizations worldwide. Harriet's experience as a teacher and her passion for education has led to Grand Circle Foundation's "World Classroom" program that provides support to more than 100 schools in 60 villages in countries where the company travels. Together, Harriet and Alan developed the Community Service Team, an employee-led task force that supports volunteerism and philanthropy and which since 1993 has donated more than 60,000 hours of volunteer service. In 2009, more than 90 percent of Grand Circle's employees participated in at least one of 27 community service events in Boston, while overseas associates led 14 events in their own countries, each funded by the company.

While Grand Circle has received several awards for its philanthropic work and generous benefit and leadership development programs for associates, Harriet has also been recognized for her leadership, including earning the New England Women's Leadership's "Circle of Giving" Award and City on a Hill's Citizenship Award. Under her leadership, Grand Circle has been cited as one of the top 25 best medium-sized companies in the U.S. by "HR Magazine" and the Best Places to Work Institute and also, by the "Boston Business Journal".

In the forthcoming book, "Driving with No Brakes", Alan and Harriet offer a brutally honest reflection on Grand Circle's successes and failures, and highlight important business choices and strategies, including its values-based culture, that have propelled it to become one of the world's leading travel companies. The book offers a case for how leaders within any industry can make their businesses more profitable and more generous.

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Help! One Company Refused to Refund Travelers More Than $100,000

Then our columnist intervened with the Boston-based tour operator Overseas Adventure Travel.

• Share full article

By Sarah Firshein

Dear Tripped Up,

My trip to Egypt with Overseas Adventure Travel was scheduled to depart in late March. O.A.T. canceled the tour because of Covid-19, which was a relief. The company notified me of the cancellation and offered either a credit for rebooking or a full refund that would have included airfare. The next week, I learned via email that I had been rebooked on the same trip next year. Unbeknown to me, the stated policy had changed: O.A.T. was no longer offering refunds. I told them that I had a medical condition and did not know when — or if — I would be able to travel, and asked whether they were just going to keep my $17,500 if I couldn’t travel by the end of 2021. Answer: Yes.

I feel I am being held hostage by O.A.T. How are they allowed to keep my money? Roz

They’re not. But, if the extraordinary number of reader complaints I have received — more than a dozen and counting — are any indication, they have been doing so anyway.

Overseas Adventure Travel is part of Grand Circle Corporation, a family of travel companies based in Boston. The small-group and cruising company has been recognized nationally.

But Massachusetts happens to be one of only a handful of states with specific laws that guarantee consumers protection against travel sellers , including requiring that tour operators offer the option of cash refunds (in addition to vouchers or credits for rebooking) when they fail to provide agreed-upon, paid-for services. According to the law, the cash refund must be “an amount equal to the fair market retail value of any undelivered, purchased travel service.”

Translation: When they cancel your trip, they are legally required to offer you the money back.

But even when individual consumers know their rights, they have few options at their immediate disposal when a customer-service representative — usually the only public-facing proxy for a company’s official or unofficial policies — refuses to relent on refunds.

As Adam Anolik, a San Francisco- based travel-industry lawyer, explained over email, that’s why oversight — forcing a company to comply with state laws — can feel like an uphill battle. “The outcome can often turn on who cancels, which is why a lot of suppliers and travelers are playing chicken right now. In reality, many of these statutes are seldom enforced. This pandemic could cause some of them to be dusted off,” said Mr. Anolik.

This is the third Tripped Up column in a row that addresses the issue of refunds. Although travel has stopped and is only starting up again — slowly and in only a few destinations — the aftershocks of that screeching halt, brought on by the coronavirus, continue to reverberate.

As travel companies now suffer a cash crunch, they are facing off with travelers over credits and refunds . Airlines are sidestepping refund regulations established by the United States Transportation Department and the European Union, betting that negative press (and even class-action lawsuits) are still preferable to negative-balance bank accounts.

It’s not hard to surmise, just by reading your email, what happened at O.A.T.: the realization that issuing refunds en masse would bleed the company dry. Tweaking the immortal words of Biggie: no money, mo’ problems.

To determine if my hunch was correct, I reached out to O.A.T. While they didn’t answer my question directly, I was able to recoup more than $100,000, collectively, for you and 10 other readers. Some got total refunds, while others (including you) received partial refunds or continue to wait for certain fees and sums to clear.

In an emailed statement, an O.A.T. spokeswoman said the company is “working to improve our processes and to better address the needs of each traveler whose trip was canceled or postponed due to the pandemic. We are either rebooking travelers on another trip or providing a refund.” Since mid-March, she said, O.A.T. has refunded more than 5,000 travelers — amounting to more than $12 million.

TripAdvisor, ConsumerAffairs and other review sites show lingering frustrations about the company’s coronavirus policies, but several Times readers, according to emails I’ve received, have made headway by filing parallel complaints with the Better Business Bureau and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office . That agency said that it has received about 275 consumer complaints so far about canceled O.A.T. trips and has been pressuring the company to comply with the state’s travel-seller laws.

Other travelers looking for refunds may have a better chance if they’re dealing with companies headquartered within Hawaii, Washington state, Illinois or California. In Hawaii, consumers have the right to a cash refund (minus previously disclosed cancellation fees) within two weeks of requesting one. Washington requires travel companies to issue cash refunds within 14 days (or 30 days when the funds are already paid to a vendor, as might be the case for a tour operator) when they cancel a service. In Illinois, the Travel Promotion Consumer Protection Act was created in the 1980s to safeguard against travel scams that promise too-good-to-be-true deals. California, with some of the strongest consumer protections in the country, requires cash refunds for undelivered services within 30 days from whichever date is earliest: the scheduled departure date, the date the refund is requested or the date the service was canceled by the travel company. (Mr. Anolik has a detailed breakdown of other state-by-state travel laws on his firm’s website. )

Back to O. A. T.: In a follow-up note a few weeks ago, you said that you feel the company provides a “good travel service.” But, you wrote, “pushing all the risk of uncertainty onto the client by refusing a refund makes me fearful to ever do business with O.A.T. again.”

You raise an important point. Even though people can’t travel right now, many of us are continuing to dream about our next trip — and that means making conscious and subconscious decisions about which companies to spend money with once the pandemic has passed.

Sarah Firshein is a Brooklyn-based travel writer. If you need advice about a best-laid travel plan that went awry, send an email to [email protected] .

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