Delano Eugene Lewis (born November 12, 1938)[1][2] is an American attorney, businessman, and diplomat. He was the United States Ambassador to South Africa from 1999 to 2001, and previously held leadership roles at the Peace Corps and National Public Radio. He was also a member of the Apple Board of Directors from 1994 to 1997.
Contents
Early life and education
Lewis was born in Arkansas City, Kansas,[2][3] into a family of "ardent Democrats". He was named for Franklin Delano Roosevelt (although his name is pronounced "Del-AYE-no".)[4] He is the only child of Raymond Ernest Lewis, a porter for the Santa Fe Railroad, and Enna L. Lewis (née Wordlow), a homemaker.[1][5][6]
Lewis attended Sumner High School, in Kansas City, Kansas, graduating in 1956.[7] He attended Boys State in his junior and senior years of high school.[7]
Lewis graduated from the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1960,[8] where he was a classmate of Wilt Chamberlain.[9] He earned a law degree from the Washburn University School of Law, in Topeka, Kansas, in 1963.[9] He worked full-time at the Menninger Clinic while attending law school.
Career
After graduation, Lewis went to work as an attorney in the U.S. Justice Department and later in the Office of Compliance in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.[10] He was an associate director and country director for the Peace Corps in Nigeria and Uganda from 1966 to 1969.[10]
Lewis was a legislative assistant to Senator Edward Brooke and Delegate Walter E. Fauntroy.[3] He led Marion Barry's mayoral transition team in 1978 and his re-election campaign's financial committee in 1982.[8]
He joined The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company in 1973 as a public affairs manager,[3][11] becoming its chief executive officer in 1990.[3] In 1988, Lewis served a one-year term as president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade,[12] and began a term as president of the newly formed City National Bank of Washington,[12] which eventually closed in 1993.
In 1993, Lewis became the president and chief executive officer of National Public Radio. During his tenure, he also joined the board of directors of Apple Computer in 1994.[13] He stepped down from the board in July 1997,[14] citing "pressing time demands".[15] He resigned from NPR in 1998.[16]
Lewis was also a member of the board of directors of Black Entertainment Television,[17] and has served on the boards of Colgate-Palmolive, Halliburton and Eastman Kodak.[9]
U.S. President Bill Clinton 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 John Edwards Conway, a law-school classmate.[9] Later, Lewis and his wife moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he started a consultancy, Lewis & Associates.[6] In 2006, he was named a senior fellow at New Mexico State University.[18] The following year, he was named founding director of New Mexico State University's International Relations Institute.[19]
Politics
Lewis was involved in the effort to establish home rule for Washington, D.C.; the District of Columbia Home Rule Act was adopted by the U.S. Congress in 1973.[20] He was a chair of the home rule committee for VOICE, the Voice of Informed Community Expression,[21] a group formed after the 1968 riots in Washington.[22]
He later ran for a seat on the Council of the District of Columbia (Washington's city council), losing to Barry.[20] It was his only run for political office, although he was considered a leading candidate for Mayor of the District of Columbia 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.[23]
Personal life
Lewis is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and was elected president while at University of Kansas.[5]
Among the many civic awards Lewis has earned,[6] The Washingtonian named him a "Washingtonian of the Year" in 1978;[24] he was awarded Catholic University's President's Medal in 1978, as well.[6] In January 2009, he was celebrated as Kansan of the Year.[25]
Lewis and his wife, the former Gayle Carolyn Jones,[1] were married in 1960,[8] and they have four sons:[8][20] Delano Jr., Geoffrey, Brian, and actor Phill.[26] A Baptist by birth and upbringing, Lewis converted to Roman Catholicism when he married.[8]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Who's Who in America – 2007".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Delano E. Lewis Papers, 1960–1997. University of Kansas. Retrieved on May 20, 2009.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Peabody, Alvin. "Delano E. Lewis: Seeking to Transform National Public Radio", The Washington Informer, May 14, 1997, p. 1.
- ↑ Molotsky, Irvin. "Public Radio's New Boss Puts First Things First", The New York Times, August 21, 1993, p. 45. Retrieved on May 20, 2009.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Martin, Fred. "The Man from C&P", Black Enterprise, June 1990, p. 286.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Encyclopedia of African American Business", Greenwood Publishing Group, pp. 470–472.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 2005 Alumni Honor Roll. Archived from the original on June 13, 2011. Retrieved on May 20, 2009.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Trescott, Jacqueline. "Delano Lewis, The Insider's Outsider – The C&P Vice President, Heading Up the Board of Trade & Playing Down Mayoral Talk", The Washington Post, January 6, 1988, p. C1.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Staff. "Delano E. Lewis: America's New Ambassador to South Africa", Ebony, July 2000, p. 116.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Delano E. Lewis, Country Director for the Peace Corps in Nigeria and Uganda from 1966 to 1969 Discusses U.S.–South Africa Relations. Peace Corps (August 6, 1999). Retrieved on May 13, 2009.
- ↑ Peabody, Alvin. "Delano Lewis Calls For Revamping Of Political System: Still The Last Colony?", The Washington Informer, March 25, 1998, p. 1.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Pyatt, Rudolph A. Jr.. "Milestone at the Board of Trade", The Washington Post, January 5, 1988, p. C1. Retrieved on May 20, 2009.
- ↑ "Board Member Quits Apple Post", MacWEEK, July 28, 1997. Retrieved on May 13, 2009.
- ↑ Apple's Board Dwindles / Computer company loses another member by Jon Swartz, San Francisco Chronicle. 1997-07-26.
- ↑ "NPR Head Resigns as Member of Board of Apple Computer", The Wall Street Journal, July 28, 1997, p. B7.
- ↑ NPR President and CEO Del Lewis Resigns His Future to Include Teaching, Lecturing and a Book. NPR (April 3, 1998). Retrieved on May 15, 2009.
- ↑ Beatty, Sally Goll. "BET Accepts Bid of $378 Million by Investor Group", The Wall Street Journal, March 17, 1998, p. 1.
- ↑ Benanti, Mary A. (August 22, 2006). Former U.S. Ambassador, Former NPR President Named Senior Fellow at NMSU. New Mexico State University. Archived from the original on May 10, 2007. Retrieved on June 1, 2009.
- ↑ Nosbisch, Bob (November 1, 2007). Lewis and Lopez to Launch International Relations Institute. New Mexico State University. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved on June 1, 2009.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Skrzycki, Cindy. "Answering a New Call – Del Lewis Leaves C&P after 20 Years for the Chance to 'Fly Free' at NPR", The Washington Post, October 25, 1993, p. F1.
- ↑ United States Congress Senate Committee on the District of Columbia. "Advisory Neighborhood Councils: Hearing, Ninety-third Congress, Second session on H.R. 12109", US GPO.
- ↑ Levy, Claudia. "D.C. Commissioner John Duncan Dies – Helped Move Blacks into Government", The Washington Post, June 22, 1994, p. B4.
- ↑ Pressler, Margaret Webb. "NPR CHIEF ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION", Washington Post, 1998-04-04. (in en-US)
- ↑ Past Washingtonians of the Year (January 29, 2008). Retrieved on May 20, 2009.
- ↑ William R. Roy. "Madelyn and Stanley Dunham Passed Test", The Topeka Capital-Journal, January 31, 2009.
- ↑ Hill, Michael E.. "Phill Lewis; D.C. Actor Has the Lead in CBS's 'Teech'", The Washington Post, September 1, 1991. Retrieved on May 13, 2009. |page=Y07}}
External links
- Delano Lewis at APCO Worldwide
- Delano Lewis at C-SPAN
- Delano Lewis at Kansapedia - The Kansas Historial Society
- Delano Lewis at LinkedIn
- Delano Lewis at the National Democratic Institute
- Delano Lewis at Wikipedia
