Ralph Lewis grew up in Tennessee, and attended the University of Tennessee for a year and a summer before moving to Southern California in August, 1962. He continued his undergraduate studies at Fullerton College, and received a B.A. and M.A. in economics from California State College, Fullerton. While at Cal-State, Fullerton, Lewis served as a graduate assistant to professors in economics, finance, and statistics. Additionlly, he was president of the local chapter of Omicron Delta Epsilon, a national honor society in economics.

From 1962-1966, Lewis was employed by Southern California Edison Company before taking a position as an instructor at Orange Coast College in 1969. And, for several years he taught courses at California State University, Fullerton, California State University, Long Beach, and Webster University Graduate School. Lewis served as the chair of the economics department at Orange Coast College for over twenty years.

In addition to his teaching duties, Lewis served as a consultant in the development of study guide materials for a nationally-televised economics telecourse, "ECONOMICS U$A." He received a Salgo Award nomination as "Best Teacher of the Year" in 1974-75, and served as president of the Orange Coast College Academic Senate in 1974 and the College Teachers Guild in 1975. Lewis was a founding member and president of the Community College Economics Educators of Southern California. He served as member of the Advisory Board for the Center for Economic Education and Research at California Polytechnic University, Pomona. Research during two sabbatical leaves included a study of international financial markets and an examination of the Federal Reserve System.

In 1979 Lewis founded Economics Research, Inc., a firm based in Costa Mesa, California. He served as an expert witness in the Superior Court of Orange County, providing economic research and expert testimony in support of litigation involving business losses, business forecasts, and personal injury losses.

In 1983 John Lucas, a former student at Orange Coast College, joined Economics Research, Inc. and within a year became a full partner in the company. Lewis and Lucas began to develop testing and survey software to work on the relatively new IBM personal computer and Scantron optical mark readers. The software was generally known as the ParSYSTEM. This software (ParTEST, ParTEST On-Line, ParSCORE, and ParGRADE) provided instructors with the ability to automate the process of test development, scoring, analysis, record keeping, and reporting. Similar software (ParSURVEY) was developed to automate the tabulation and analysis of surveys. Soon the ParSYSTEM was adapted to work with the scanners of National Computer Systems and Kaiser-Datentechnik GmbH. And, German and French versions of the software were developed.

The ParSYSTEM and other products of Economics Research, Inc. were used by a large number of high schools, colleges, textbook publishers, and businesses for classroom testing, large-group instruction, telecourse instruction, student assessment, and the training of police, fire, and military personnel. In 1993 Economics Research, Inc. was purchased by Scantron Corporation, which continues to market, develop, and support the ParSYSTEM product line and related scannable forms.

Professor Lewis retired from full-time teaching in May, 2004.