When Ken Lewis returned from a mountain vacation in August, the Bank of America CEO was spotted around the headquarters tower sporting a full beard. And when a clean-shaven Lewis, 62, announced a few weeks later he would retire at year’s end, a BofA spokesman told reporters the brief experiment with facial hair—an unprecedented fashion statement from Charlotte’s top banker—should have been a sign that Lewis was ready to move on.

But beyond the whiskers on his face, 2009 revealed Lewis’ rough edges in other places too. Lewis was battered by angry shareholders when he was stripped of his chairmanship at the company’s annual meeting in April. He looked frazzled and frustrated when politicians questioned his judgment in buying Merrill Lynch & Co. The controversy led to legal investigations and his testimony in front of a congressional panel.

And though his dealings left the company with one of the most impressive banking franchises in the world, Lewis’ final year will be remembered more for its outward appearance than his core body of work.

“Ironically, Mr. Lewis may have been driven out of the company due to his successes, not his failures,” analyst Dick Bove says. “His acquisitions of Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch were strokes of genius that resulted in immediate benefits to the bank. Others, complaining about the methodology, not the result, saw the acquisitions differently.”

BofA declined to make Lewis available for an interview about his retirement.

Lewis started 2009 on the wrong foot when word spread in early January that the bank needed $20 billion in additional government aid to cover $15 billion in losses at Merrill Lynch, the company Lewis scooped up as the financial markets crashed. Once viewed as Merrill’s savior, Lewis quickly became associated with reckless Wall Street dealmakers in need of government bailouts to clean up his mess.

He was criticized for paying too much for Merrill and misleading investors.

In the following months, groups of activist shareholders and union pension funds campaigned for Lewis to lose his job at the bank’s shareholder meeting. The groups successfully petitioned for a vote that would split the roles of company chairman and CEO in an effort to strip Lewis of some of his power.

Leading the charge, the Service Employees International Union organized protests and petitions across the nation urging shareholders to vote against Lewis. The union described Lewis as “one of the chief architects of the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression.”

After a contentious shareholder meeting, Lewis lost his position as chairman. Longtime director Walter Massey was nominated in his place.

From there, the distractions kept coming. Last summer, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused BofA of misleading shareholders when it didn’t disclose Merrill’s rising losses before a merger vote. That suit will go to trial in 2010.

And the backroom dealings Lewis had with U.S. Treasury officials over more bailout money leaked out when Congress investigated the BofA-Merrill deal.

With $45 billion of government aid hanging over his head, Lewis in June testified in front of a congressional panel about his role in the Merrill purchase.

He told lawmakers the government “pressured” him to go through with the deal when he considered backing out. But he said the decisions by all the parties involved were made in the best interests of shareholders and the declining economy.

“Just six months later, it is easy to forget just how close to the brink our system came,” Lewis said. “I will never forget.”

But some lawmakers suggested Lewis had shrewdly forced taxpayers to put up more aid so he could close a bad deal. “It’s quite possible it was Bank of America that put a gun to the head of the government,” Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio said.

In late September, Lewis threw in the towel. He abruptly told directors he would retire at the end of the year, setting off a lengthy search for his replacement.

In December, Lewis capped his career on a high note. BofA surprised Wall Street when it cut a deal with the government to repay the entire $45 billion it received in taxpayer aid. And the bank named Brian Moynihan, one of Lewis’ chief lieutenants, as his successor.

“A CEO’s legacy is the next CEO, so I want him to do real well,” Lewis said of Moynihan during a passing-of-the-torch-style appearance in uptown Charlotte on December 17.

Despite receiving lengthy ovations from employees at that event, Lewis is expected to seek privacy in his retirement. Many believe he’ll spend time away from the scrutiny of Wall Street (or even Tryon Street).

Still, Moynihan has promised to continue Lewis’ mission and even seek his counsel when it's needed.

“When he tries to go out and hide in Colorado and grow out his beard,” Moynihan told employees, “I’ll go find him.”

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Adam O'Daniel is a staff writer for the Charlotte Business Journal.