Ripton- A. Lewis Burridge, Jr, 91, President Sterling Drug Asia, CAT Airlines Executive, China Specialist, Captain Marine Air Corps Alvin Lewis Burridge, Jr, noted international business executive and US Marine pilot, died Nov. 16, in Haverhill, Mass. He was 91. Born June 18, 1920 in Crystal Falls, Mich., he was the son of Alvin Lewis Burridge and Alberta Erikson, and the brother of Charles Kingsley Burridge of Kent, WA, May Belle Rexford of Cadillac, MI., and the late George Nau Burridge of Green Bay, WI. After growing up in Cadillac, MI and beginning his college career, Lewis enlisted in the US Marine Air Corps after Dec. 7, 1941. An experienced multi-engine aircraft pilot, Lewis spent WWII as a B-25 and B-26 Marine Corps flight instructor at Cherry Point, NC. In the waning days of the war, Lewis transferred to the Pacific theater where he volunteered to serve with General Claire Lee Chenault and Flying Tiger pilots as they founded Civil Air Transport, CAT, the first commercial air service in the Far East after the war. Funded in part by US intelligence agencies, CAT also provided materiel support to US allies in Asia from period of the Chinese Revolution through the Vietnam conflict. Lewis worked primarily as a CAT Operations Executive and pilot in China during the late forties and early fifties, supporting the forces of Chiang Kai-shek against the emerging threat and eventual overthrow of the Nationalists by Chairman Mao and his Communist forces. After leaving the US reserves in the early fifties, Lewis continued to advise the US State Dept. and the CIA during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, and was recognized by the Central Intelligence Agency for his extraordinary service record in 2007. In 1951 Lewis married Ann Patricia Kuzniar of Republic, PA, a secretary with the State Dept stationed in Tokyo during the Occupation. After leaving full-time work for CAT and the US Marine Corps in the late fifties, Lewis then founded and developed the Asian division of Sterling Drug Company, acting as its Asian president for 30 years while living with his growing family in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Manila. Lewis, always dedicated to community and country, also acted as President of the Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce and served the International Rotarians faithfully throughout his life. Retirement could not slow him down. He and Ann built a retirement home in Ripton, VT in the 1980s where they resided for 25 years, and Lewis devoted himself to his local parish, Rotary Club, and Addison County politics, among his many interests. Despite losing his beloved wife, Ann, in 2006, Lewis strode across every stage of his life with boundless energy and innate optimism in the future, leaving this essential legacy to his three children and grandchildren: A. Lewis Burridge III of Newburyport, MA, his wife Anne, granddaughters Amanda and Allison, and grandson Samuel; Carol Ann Burridge of Roslindale, MA; and Laura Burridge Nute of East Hampstead, NH, her husband Robert, and granddaughters Kaela, Lauren, and Sofia. The family will receive relatives and friends Monday, November 21, 2011 from 11AM to 1 PM and 5-8 PM at the Sanderson-Ducharme Funeral Home, 117 S. Main St. Middlebury. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 1 PM Tuesday at St. Marys Church with the Rev. William R. Beaudin, pastor, as celebrant. Burial with military honors provided by the American Legion, Post # 27 will follow at St. Marys Cemetery. Memorial donations may be made to the American Cancer Society, 55 Day Lane, Williston, VT 05495. www.sandersonfuneralservice.com.