Delano Lewis

Delano Lewis
United States Ambassador to South Africa
In office 1999–2001
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	James A. Joseph
Succeeded by	Cameron Hume
Personal details
Born	November 12, 1938 (1938-11-12) (age 73) Arkansas City, Kansas
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	University of Kansas Washburn University School of Law

Delano Eugene Lewis (born November 12, 1938^[1][2] in Arkansas City, Kansas^[3]) is an American attorney, businessman, and diplomat. He was the ambassador to South Africa from 1999 to 2001, and previously held leadership roles with the Peace Corps, National Public Radio, and the U.S. diplomatic corps.

Biography

Born into a family of "ardent Democrats", Lewis was named for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, although his name is pronounced "Del-AYE-no".^[4] He is the only child of a 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, graduating in 1956.^[7] He attended Boys State in his junior and senior years of high school.^[7] He graduated from the University of Kansas in 1960,^[8] where he was a classmate of Wilt Chamberlain.^[9] He earned a law degree from Washburn University School of Law, in Topeka, Kansas in 1963.^[9] He had married in 1960, and worked full time at the Menninger Clinic while attending law school.^[6]

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 transition team in 1978 and his financial committee in 1982.^[8]

He joined The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company in 1973 as a public affairs manager,^[3][11] becoming its CEO 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 president and CEO of National Public Radio. During his tenure, he served for three years on the board of Apple Computer,^[13] citing "pressing time demands"^[14] as the reason for leaving in 1997. He resigned from NPR in 1998.^[15]

Lewis was also a member of the board of directors of Black Entertainment Television,^[16] and has served on the board of Colgate-Palmolive, Halliburton, and Eastman Kodak.^[9]

President Bill Clinton named Lewis U.S. ambassador to South Africa, a post he served in from 1999 to 2001. He was sworn in by federal judge John Conway, a law-school classmate.^[9] 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.^[17] The following year, he was named as the founding director of New Mexico State University's International Relations Institute.^[18]

Politics

Lewis was involved in the effort to establish home rule for Washington, D.C., which passed in 1973.^[19] He was a chair of the home rule committee for VOICE, the Voice of Informed Community Expression,^[20] a group which had been formed after the 1968 riots in Washington.^[21] In that capacity, and as a legislative aide to Fauntroy, he testified before Senate committees on the matter.

He later ran for a seat on the city council, losing to Marion Barry.^[19] It was his only run for political office, although he was considered a leading candidate for mayor of DC for years, and was 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

Lewis is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, and was elected president while at University of Kansas.^[5]

Lewis and his wife, the former Gayle Carolyn Jones,^[1] were married in 1960,^[8] and they have four sons:^[8][19] Delano, Jr., Geoffrey, Brian, and Phill.^[22]

Among the many civic awards Lewis has earned,^[6] Washingtonian named him as a "Washingtonian of the Year" in 1978.^[23] A Baptist by birth, he converted to Roman Catholicism when he married.^[8] Lewis was awarded Catholic University's President's Medal, also in 1978.^[6] In January 2009, he was celebrated as Kansan of the Year.^[24]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Who's Who in America - 2007 (61 ed.). 2006. 
2. ^ "Delano E. Lewis papers, 1960-1997". University of Kansas. http://etext.ku.edu/view?docId=ksrlead/ksrl.kc.lewisdelanoe.xml;route=ksrlead;brand=ksrlead;query=. Retrieved 2009-05-20. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Peabody, Alvin (1997-05-14). "Delano E. Lewis: Seeking To Transform National Public Radio". 33. Washington Informer. p. 1. 
4. ^ Molotsky, Irvin (1993-08-21). "Public Radio's New Boss Puts First Things First". The New York Times. p. 45. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/21/arts/public-radio-s-new-boss-puts-first-things-first.html?scp=1&sq=%22Delano%20E.%20Lewis%22&st=cse&pagewanted=print. Retrieved 2009-05-20. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Martin, Fred (June 1990). The Man from C&P. Black Enterprise. p. 286. 
6. ^ ^{a b c d e} Smith, Jessie Carney, Millicent Lownes Jackson, Linda T. Wynn (2006). Encyclopedia of African American Business. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 470–472. ISBN 9780313331114. 
7. ^ ^{a b} "2005 Alumni Honor Roll". http://www.kckps.org/recognition/alumni/2005/lewis.php. Retrieved 2009-05-20. 
8. ^ ^{a b c d e} Trescott, Jacqueline (1988-01-06). "Delano Lewis, The Insider's Outsider - The C&P Vice President, Heading Up the Board of Trade & Playing Down Mayoral Talk". The Washington Post. p. C1. 
9. ^ ^{a b c d} Anonymous (July 2000). Delano E. Lewis: America's new ambassador to South Africa. Ebony. p. 116. 
10. ^ ^{a b} "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 Online. 1999-08-06. http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/467/3429.html. Retrieved 2009-05-13. 
11. ^ Peabody, Alvin (1998-03-25). "Delano Lewis Calls For Revamping Of Political System: Still The Last Colony?". 34. Washington Informer. p. 1. 
12. ^ ^{a b} Pyatt, Rudolph A. Jr. (1988-01-05). "Milestone at the Board of Trade". The Washington Post date=1988-01-05. p. C1. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73553595.html?dids=73553595:73553595&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&fmac=&date=Jan+5%2C+1988&author=RUDOLPH+A.+PYATT+JR.&desc=Milestone+at+the+Board+of+Trade. Retrieved 2009-05-20. 
13. ^ "Board member quits Apple post". MacWEEK. 1997-07-28. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9308034_ITM. Retrieved 2009-05-13. 
14. ^ "NPR head resigns as member of board of Apple Computer". The Wall Street Journal. 1997-07-28. p. B7. 
15. ^ "NPR President and CEO Del Lewis Resigns His Future To Include Teaching, Lecturing and a Book". National Public Radio. 1998-04-03. http://www.npr.org/about/press/980403.del.html. Retrieved 2009-05-13. 
16. ^ Beatty, Sally Goll (1998-03-17). "BET Accepts Bid Of $378 Million By Investor Group". The Wall Street Journal. p. 1. 
17. ^ Benanti, Mary A. (2006-08-22). "Former U.S. ambassador, former NPR president named senior fellow at NMSU". New Mexico State University. http://www.nmsu.edu/~ucomm/Releases/2006/august/senior_fellow.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-01. ^{[dead link]}
18. ^ Nosbisch, Bob (2007-11-01). "Lewis and Lopez to launch International Relations Institute". New Mexico State University. http://business.nmsu.edu/2007/11/01/lewis-and-lopez-to-launch-international-relations-institute/. Retrieved 2009-06-01. 
19. ^ ^{a b c} Skrzycki, Cindy (1993-10-25). "Answering a New Call - Del Lewis Leaves C&P after 20 Years For the Chance to 'Fly Free' at NPR". The Washington Post. p. F1. 
20. ^ United States Congress Senate Committee on the District of Columbia (1974). Advisory Neighborhood Councils: hearing, Ninety-third Congress, second session on H.R. 12109. US GPO. 
21. ^ Levy, Claudia (1994-06-22). "D.C. Commissioner John Duncan Dies - Helped Move Blacks Into Government". The Washington Post. p. B4. 
22. ^ Hill, Michael E. (1991-09-01). "Phill Lewis; D.C. Actor Has the Lead In CBS's `Teech'". The Washington Post. p. Y07. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/74731717.html?dids=74731717:74731717&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&fmac=&date=Sep+1%2C+1991&author=Michael+E.+Hill&desc=Phill+Lewis%3B+D.C.+Actor+Has+the+Lead+In+CBS%27s+%60Teech%27. Retrieved 2009-05-13. 
23. ^ "Past Washingtonians of the Year". 2008-01-29. http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/6414.html. Retrieved 2009-05-20. 
24. ^ Roy, Bill (2009-01-31). "Madelyn and Stanley Dunham passed test". Topeka Capital-Journal. 

Business positions
Preceded by Douglas J. Bennet	President and CEO of National Public Radio 1993–1998	Succeeded by Kevin Klose
Political offices
Preceded by James A. Joseph	United States Ambassador to South Africa 1999-2001	Succeeded by Cameron Hume

Persondata
Name	Lewis, Delano
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1938-11-12
Place of birth	Arkansas City, Kansas
Date of death
Place of death