Lewis Drabkin, founder of Lewis Lumber Ltd., which specialized in cut-to-length spruce for box springs and was based in Great Neck, New York, died Sept. 9 in East Setauket, New York. He was 96.
Drabkin spent his entire career in lumber, most of it as a supplier to the bedding industry. He founded Lewis Lumber in 1953 and managed the business until retiring in 1983. In 1986, Leggett & Platt bought Lewis Lumber’s inventory from Drabkin’s son Brian, who continues in the business, but no longer serves the bedding industry. Drabkin and his wife Edith, who predeceased him in 2013, spent most of their retirement years in Boca Raton, Florida.
Brian, who worked in the business alongside his father prior to acquiring it on his father’s retirement, told BedTimes that he attended many ISPA Expos, and that his “father loved the lumber business and working with mattress-industry members. (In the 1960s) he was a pioneer in convincing the mills to cut shorter boards for box springs—before that, anything under 8 feet was not considered good for anything except chipping.”
After graduating from high school in 1935, during the height of the Depression, Lewis Drabkin found his first job at Forest Box and Lumber in Brooklyn, New York, a large, diversified supplier to architectural and home furnishings manufacturers.
In 1953, he seized the opportunity to start his own company in partnership with his brother, who left the business after one year. The New York area was a shipping and transportation hub for lumber and home to more than 750 lumber yards, most specializing in one industry or product.
“My father chose spruce from eastern Canada, which was used to make box springs because—at that time—there were many hand-tied, box-spring shops in the region,” Brian Drabkin said.
In addition to Brian, Drabkin is survived by daughters Barbara Gorman and Ruth Ann Kahn, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
