Peter Lewis, longtime Progressive Corp. insurance company CEO, died Saturday at the age of 80.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Lewis died in his home in Coconut Grove, Florida.
Lewis was first appointed CEO of Progressive in 1965 when it was a small, Cleveland-based insurance company. Holding the position for 35 years, Lewis made the company into one of the largest auto insurance companies in the country.
Lewis was also a huge supporter of marijuana legalization, financing campaigns in Ohio, Washington, Colorado and Massachusetts after he used medical marijuana following his left leg amputation.
"I don't believe that laws against things that people do regularly, like safe and responsible use of marijuana, make any sense," he told Forbes magazine in 2011. "Everything that has been done to enforce these laws has had a negative effect, with no results."
The Associated Press reports that Lewis was also a trustee of the Guggenheim Museum as well as Princeton, from which he graduated in 1955.
Lewis, whose net worth was calculated at $1.4 billion by Forbes in 2006, is survived by his wife, Janet Rosel; brother Daniel, of Coconut Grove; daughter Ivy, of Princeton, N.J.; sons Adam of Aspen, Colo., and Jonathan of Coconut Grove; and five grandchildren.
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