Reginald F. Lewis

Early life

Reginald Francis Lewis was born on December 7, 1942, in East Baltimore, a neighborhood he later called "semi-tough." According to his foundation, he started a newspaper route at about age ten, built it to more than a hundred customers, and sold it at a profit. At Dunbar High School he captained several teams and was student body vice president.

He entered Virginia State College on a football scholarship in 1961. After an injury ended his playing days, he concentrated on his studies and graduated in 1965. That summer he attended a Harvard Law School program funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and was admitted to the law school that fall. His foundation says he was the first person in the school's history admitted before applying. He graduated in 1968.

Corporate lawyer

Lewis began his career at the New York firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. About two years later he co-founded a firm that BlackPast and his foundation describe as the first African American law firm on Wall Street. His practice focused on corporate law, including structuring investments in minority-owned businesses. He also represented the Wilmington Ten in their civil rights case.

Dealmaker

In 1983 Lewis founded the TLC Group to make acquisitions of his own. Its first major deal was the $22.5 million leveraged buyout of the struggling McCall Pattern Company. He sold McCall in 1987 at a large profit; his foundation puts the price at $65 million, while BlackPast gives $90 million.

Months later, in 1987, TLC agreed to buy Beatrice Foods' international division, 64 companies in 31 countries, for about $985 million, with financing arranged through Drexel Burnham Lambert. His foundation calls it the largest leveraged buyout of overseas assets by an American company up to that time. Renamed TLC Beatrice International, the company reported annual sales of $1.5 billion to more than $1.8 billion by the early 1990s, depending on the source. It topped Black Enterprise's list of the largest Black-owned businesses. Forbes estimated Lewis's net worth at $400 million in 1992.

Philanthropy and legacy

Lewis created the Reginald F. Lewis Foundation in 1987. He gave $1 million to Howard University and, in 1992, $3 million to Harvard Law School, at the time the largest grant in the school's history. Harvard named its International Law Center in his honor and created fellowships in his name.

Lewis died of brain cancer in New York in January 1993, at age 50. Harvard Law School notes that he co-authored the book Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? In 2002 his foundation gave $5 million to a planned African American museum in Baltimore. Since opening in 2005, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture has been the state's largest African American museum.