Reginald Lewis (1942-1993), Self-Made Business Success
• First African-American businessman to make Forbes list of wealthiest people
• In 1992 donated largest gift from an individual in Harvard Law School’s history
Reginald F. Lewis was born on December 7, 1942, in Baltimore, Maryland. His parents separated when he was quite young, but he had a strong moral upbringing from his mother and grandparents who instilled in Lewis the philosophy of working hard and saving money.
When he was ten years old, Lewis took on a newspaper route and his grandmother taught him the importance of saving much of what he earned. As a teenager, he worked alongside his grandfather who was headwaiter and maitre d’ at a private country club. His grandfather advised: “Know your job and do it well.”
Lewis’ mother, Carolyn Fugett, reinforced these messages. On a television broadcast, An American Legacy, recorded shortly after his death in 1993, she said she always told him: “Put spikes on your shoes and keep on climbing.”
In 1961, Reginald entered Virginia State University on a football scholarship. When an injury sidelined him and cost him his scholarship, but he got a job to pay for his education. In his senior year, he was invited to Harvard Law School to attend a summer program for a select few black students. At the end of the summer, Lewis was invited to apply to the law school. He graduated in 1968 with a specialty in securities law.
Internet entrepreneur Evan Britton has built a profitable company, Resource Webs, by acquiring educational and niche sites built by people who were passionate about each subject; Resource Webs then sells the opportunity for targeted advertising. The traffic to two of Britton’s sites caught his interest, and he began wondering how he could benefit from what he was observing.