By Joshua Carpenter
As the President of Houghton University, Dr. Wayne D. Lewis is a busy man. His responsibilities as president frequently take him off campus, and many times, even out of state. One week he may be working in his office, the other, somewhere across the country.
According to President Lewis’ wife, Monica Lewis, he “has had a very demanding job most of our marriage and all of Whitley’s [their daughter’s] life[,] so we’re accustomed to his 40% travel, weeknight and weekend commitments.”
When he is on campus, students will usually see him giving a speech during chapel or eating in the dining hall with his family. However, because of his schedule, students may find it hard to approach him, or, other than what he says about himself in chapel, students may feel as though they barely know him.
Sophomore Vincent Ocasio says, “I would love to talk with President Lewis behind closed doors because he seems very firm and bold in what he believes in, and I want to know if he is the same person behind closed doors as he is in front of chapel.”
Mrs. Lewis, who has been married to President Lewis for 19 years, describes her husband as a “God fearing, relationship building and compassionate man,” who, “wholeheartedly gives what he can because God has been so generous to him.”
Dr. Lewis grew up in the city of New Orleans surrounded by family. Because his parents went back to school when he was a kid, and because of the nine-year age difference between him and his younger sister, he spent a great amount of time with his extended family.
His mother’s side of the family was in and around the city of New Orleans, and his father’s side of the family lived about two hours from New Orleans in Patterson, Louisiana.
As Lewis said, he “routinely spent lots of time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and second cousins, who were more like brothers and sisters to me than my cousins.”
Returning to his immediate family, Lewis described that his parents’ “determination to earn their undergraduate degrees, both to provide a better economic situation for the family, and to model the importance of education” had a great impact on him and his sister, even to the point that they followed in their father’s footsteps and went to the same undergraduate school that their father went to, with his sister getting an MBA at the school where their mother got her undergraduate degree.
To Lewis, “parents have been, and continue to be, a big part of my life. They are a big part of the people who have shaped me into who I have become.” ★
