Lew was born October 27, 1947 in Brainerd, MN to parents Clarence and Mildred (Sandberg) Dailey. He grew up on White Sand Lake and could swim before he could walk.

Following graduation from Brainerd High School in 1967 he married Roxanne Olson and they moved to St. Paul, MN where Lew worked for the telephone company and they had three children, Lew, Edward, and Becky. After their divorce in 1975 he transferred to North Dakota where he met Connie Norheim at Skateland, and they shared the next 39 years together.

He and Connie traveled to find new "lifebirds" while they camped across the US and Australia. Lew delighted in being a birdwatcher watcher. He had an inquisitive mind and was intrigued with anything new - electronics, gadgets:, geocaching, computers, ham radios and loved being known on the NDSU campus as the Segway Man. He loved roughhousing with grandchildren and getting them "all riled up" right before he left for home.

Lew retired from Qwest in 2002 and started as a full time volunteer at the manufacturing engineering lab at NDSU where he loved the challenge of working with the students and their projects.