Delano Eugene Lewis (born November 12, 1938) 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 The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...

and

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

. He is the father of actor

Phill Lewis Phillip David Lewis (born February 14, 1968) is an American actor, comedian and director who is best known for his role as hotel manager Mr. Moseby on the Disney Channel series ''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody'' and its spin-off, ''The Suite Lif ...

Early life and education

Lewis was born in Arkansas City, Kansas, into a family of "ardent Democrats". He was named for Franklin Delano Roosevelt (although his name is pronounced "Del-AYE-no".) He is the only child of Raymond Ernest Lewis, a porter for the

Santa Fe Railroad The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and ...

, and Enna L. Lewis (née Wordlow), a homemaker. Lewis attended Sumner High School, in Kansas City, Kansas, graduating in 1956. He attended

Boys State The American Legion Boys State and American Legion Auxiliary Girls State are summer leadership and citizenship programs for high school juniors, which focus on exploring the mechanics of American government and politics. The programs are sponsor ...

in his junior and senior years of high school. Lewis graduated from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

, in

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

, Kansas, in 1960, where he was a classmate of

Wilt Chamberlain Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center. Standing at tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 years and is widely reg ...

. He earned a law degree from the

Washburn University School of Law The Washburn University School of Law is a public law school located on the main campus of Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. Washburn Law was founded in 1903. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and has been a member of ...

, in

Topeka Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central Uni ...

, Kansas, in 1963. He worked full-time at the

Menninger Clinic The Menninger Foundation was founded in 1919 by the Menninger family in Topeka, Kansas. The Menninger Foundation, known locally as Menninger's, consists of a clinic, a sanatorium, and a school of psychiatry, all of which bear the Menninger name. ...

while attending law school.

Career

After graduation, Lewis went to work as an attorney in the

U.S. Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United States ...

and later in the Office of Compliance in the

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

. He was an associate director and country director for the Peace Corps in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

and

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

from 1966 to 1969. Lewis was a legislative assistant to Senator

Edward Brooke Edward William Brooke III (October 26, 1919 – January 3, 2015) was an American politician of the Republican Party, who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1967 until 1979. Prior to serving in the Senate, he served as th ...

and Delegate Walter E. Fauntroy. He led

Marion Barry Marion Shepilov Barry (born Marion Barry Jr.; March 6, 1936 – November 23, 2014) was an American politician who served as the second and fourth mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999. A Democrat, Barry had served ...

's mayoral transition team in 1978 and his re-election campaign's financial committee in 1982. He joined The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company in 1973 as a public affairs manager, becoming its chief executive officer in 1990. In 1988, Lewis served a one-year term as president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, 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 served for three years on the board of Apple Computer, citing "pressing time demands" as the reason for leaving in 1997. He resigned from NPR in 1998. Lewis was also a member of the board of directors of Black Entertainment Television, and has served on the boards of Colgate-Palmolive,

Halliburton Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation responsible for most of the world's hydraulic fracturing operations. In 2009, it was the world's second largest oil field service company. It has operations in more than 70 countries ...

and Eastman Kodak. U.S. President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

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. Later, Lewis and his wife moved to

Las Cruces, New Mexico Las Cruces (; "the crosses") is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New Mexico and the seat of Doña Ana County. As of the 2020 census the population was 111,385. Las Cruces is the largest city in both Doña Ana County and southern Ne ...

, where he started a consultancy, Lewis & Associates. In 2006, he was named a senior fellow at

New Mexico State University New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's ...

. 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

home rule Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...

for Washington, D.C.; the

District of Columbia Home Rule Act The District of Columbia Home Rule Act is a United States federal law passed on December 24, 1973, which devolved certain congressional powers of the District of Columbia to local government, furthering District of Columbia home rule. In par ...

was adopted by the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

in 1973. He was a chair of the home rule committee for VOICE, the Voice of Informed Community Expression, a group formed after the 1968 riots in Washington. He later ran for a seat on the Council of the District of Columbia (Washington's city council), losing to Barry. 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.

Personal life

Lewis is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and was elected president while at University of Kansas. Among the many civic awards Lewis has earned, '' The Washingtonian'' named him a "Washingtonian of the Year" in 1978; he was awarded Catholic University's 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 Phill. A

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

by birth and upbringing, Lewis converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

when he married.

References

External links