1. Delano Eugene Lewis was an American attorney, businessman and diplomat.
20 Facts About Delano Lewis
1. 2.
Delano Lewis was the United States ambassador to South Africa from 2000 to 2001, and previously held leadership roles at the Peace Corps and National Public Radio.
3.
Delano Eugene Lewis was born on November 12,1938, in Arkansas City, Kansas, into a family of "ardent Democrats".
4.
Delano Lewis was named for Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
5.
Delano Lewis was the only child of Raymond Ernest Lewis, a porter for the Santa Fe Railroad, and Enna L Lewis, a homemaker.
6.
Delano Lewis attended Boys State in his junior and senior years of high school.
7.
Delano Lewis graduated from the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1960, where he was a classmate of Wilt Chamberlain.
8.
Delano Lewis earned a law degree from the Washburn University School of Law, in Topeka, Kansas, in 1963.
9.
Delano Lewis worked full-time at the Menninger Clinic while attending law school.
10.
Delano Lewis was an associate director and country director for the Peace Corps in Nigeria and Uganda from 1966 to 1969.
11.
Delano Lewis led Marion Barry's mayoral transition team in 1978 and his re-election campaign's financial committee in 1982.
12.
In 1988, Delano 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.
13.
In 1993, Delano Lewis became the president and chief executive officer of National Public Radio.
14.
Delano Lewis was a member of the board of directors of Black Entertainment Television, and served on the boards of Colgate-Palmolive, Halliburton, and Eastman Kodak, as well.
15.
Delano Lewis was sworn in by federal judge John Edwards Conway, a law-school classmate.
16.
Delano Lewis was involved in the effort to establish home rule for Washington, DC; the District of Columbia Home Rule Act was adopted by the US Congress in 1973.
17.
Delano Lewis 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.
18.
Delano Lewis later ran for a seat on the Council of the District of Columbia, losing to Barry.
19.
Delano Lewis was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and was elected president of it while at the University of Kansas.
20.
Delano Lewis died on August 2,2023, under hospice care in Las Cruces, New Mexico, aged 84.