Delano Lewis

Delano Eugene Lewis (born November 12, 1938) is an American attorney, businessman, and diplomat. He was the from 1999 to 2001, and previously held leadership roles at the  and. He was also a member of the Apple Board of Directors from 1994 to 1997.

Early life and education
Lewis was born in, Kansas, into a family of "ardent ". He was named for (although his name is pronounced "Del-AYE-no".) He is the only child of Raymond Ernest Lewis, a porter for the, and Enna L. Lewis (née Wordlow), a homemaker.

Lewis attended, in , Kansas, graduating in 1956. He attended in his junior and senior years of high school.

Lewis graduated from the, in , Kansas, in 1960, where he was a classmate of. He earned a from the, in , Kansas, in 1963. He worked full-time at the while attending law school.

Career
After graduation, Lewis went to work as an attorney in the and later in the Office of Compliance in the. He was an associate director and country director for the Peace Corps in and  from 1966 to 1969. Lewis was a legislative assistant to Senator and Delegate. He led 's mayoral transition team in 1978 and his re-election campaign's financial committee in 1982.

He joined in 1973 as a  manager, becoming its chief executive officer in 1990. In 1988, Lewis served a one-year term as president of the, and began a term as president of the newly formed City National Bank of Washington, which eventually closed in 1993. In 1993, Lewis became the president and chief executive officer of. During his tenure, he also joined the board of directors of Apple Computer in 1994. He stepped down from the board in July 1997, citing "pressing time demands". He resigned from NPR in 1998.

Lewis was also a member of the board of directors of, and has served on the boards of , and.

U.S. President named Lewis the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, a post in which he served from 1999 to 2001. He was sworn in by federal judge, a law-school classmate. Later, Lewis and his wife moved to, where he started a consultancy, Lewis & Associates. In 2006, he was named a senior fellow at. The following year, he was named founding director of New Mexico State University's International Relations Institute.

Politics
Lewis was involved in the effort to establish for Washington, D.C.; the  was adopted by the  in 1973. He was a chair of the home rule committee for VOICE, the Voice of Informed Community Expression, a group formed after the.

He later ran for a seat on the (Washington's city council), losing to Barry. It was his only run for political office, although he was considered a leading candidate for for years, and was often described as a power broker in Washington, D.C. politics. When he resigned from NPR, he declared that he would not be running for any public office.

Personal life
Lewis is a member of fraternity and was elected president while at University of Kansas.

Among the many civic awards Lewis has earned,  named him a "Washingtonian of the Year" in 1978; he was awarded  President's Medal in 1978, as well. In January 2009, he was celebrated as Kansan of the Year.

Lewis and his wife, the former Gayle Carolyn Jones, were married in 1960, and they have four sons: Delano Jr., Geoffrey, Brian, and actor. A by birth and upbringing, Lewis converted to  when he married.