Anguillian-born Dr. Lincoln Vernon Lewis, beloved educator, university administrator, and community leader of Charlottesville, Virginia, passed away gently Saturday, July 26, 2014, after a valiant battle with cancer.
Born in Island Harbour, Anguilla on June 8, 1929, Dr. Lewis made Charlottesville his home in 1988. His wife, the late Josepheta Mary Lewis, preceded him in death in 1991. The son of Mena Elizabeth Hodge and Samuel Lewis and the eldest grandson of Mary Caroline and Joseph Benjamin Hodge, Dr. Lewis received his elementary and high school education in Anguilla and St. Kitts. As a young man, he worked at the Lago Oil and Transport Company refinery in Aruba. After winning the refinery’s prestigious educational scholarship in 1960, Dr. Lewis earned his B.A. (1964) and M.B.A. (1965) from Cornell University. He earned his Ph.D. in Education (1980) from Indiana University.
Dr. Lewis began his career in 1965 as the first Educational Director of New Opportunities for Waterbury, a community action agency dedicated to improving the quality of life for economically disadvantaged individuals in Waterbury, Connecticut. In 1967, he became the first Director of an Upward Bound program in the United States (also in Waterbury). In 1976, Dr. Lewis joined Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis as the Director of Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Programs. Dr. Lewis joined the University of Virginia in 1988 as its first Equal Opportunity Programs Officer. Following retirement in 1994, he remained active in the University community. Regarded as insightful, fair and caring, Dr. Lewis served as President of the UVA Retired Faculty Association (2010-2012), on a University strategic planning committee focused on faculty recruitment, retention and development, and on the UVA Health Sciences Board.
Dr. Lewis was also active in civic and community affairs in Charlottesville/Albemarle County. He was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church, serving as President of the Senior Ministry Seniors (2010-2014) and several terms as Junior Warden and then Senior Warden. Dr. Lewis served as President of the Albemarle County Social Services Board, as a member of the Piedmont Council of the Arts Board, and as President of the Ashcroft Neighborhood Association. Most recently, Dr. Lewis served as Director-At-Large of the Executive Board of the 100 Black Men of Central Virginia, an organization dedicated to eliminating the achievement gap of African American boys in grades K—12. He also served in many other executive board positions. Dr. Lewis was a life member of the NAACP and headed its Legal Redress Committee until 2012. His role as a skillful negotiator and peacemaker are legendary.
One of Dr. Lewis’ proudest moments was delivering the Walter G. Hodge Memorial Anguilla Day Lecture in 2003, a lecture marking Anguilla’s most important national holiday and named for Dr. Lewis’ uncle who was a prominent figure in securing Anguilla’s self-determination.
Dr. Lewis is survived by his daughter, Caroline Lewis Wolverton and her husband Charles D. Wolverton II of Washington, D.C., grandsons Zachary, Walter, and Matthew Wolverton, brother-in-law Warren Tuggle, aunts-in-law Molly Hodge and Olive Hodge in Anguilla, and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews and their families (living in Anguilla, St. Thomas, U.S. V.I, Alabama, Maryland, and Florida), and his long-time loving friend, Dr. Beverly Colwell Adams.
Dr. Lewis was also an avid golfer, a distance runner, and quite a dancer. Funeral services for the late Dr. Lincoln V. Lewis will be held in Virginia on Friday August 1st, 2014.
– Contributed
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
