Eugene Lewis
BAKERSVILLE - Teacher, artist and polymath Eugene Lewis (known to his friends as Gene) died on May 5, 2024 in Spruce Pine, North Carolina of complications from multiple system atrophy (MSA), a rare neurodegenerative disease.
Gene was born on August 21, 1940 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Martin and Matilda Lewis, and graduated from Lower Merion High School and Temple University. He obtained an M.A. from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in political science from Syracuse University, then started his academic career as a professor of government at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. His scholarship focused on how visionary individuals have transformed public bureaucracies from within for good or for ill, as exemplified by his 1980 book, Public Entrepreneurship: Toward a Theory of Bureaucratic Political Power: The Organizational Lives of Hyman Rickover, J. Edgar Hoover, and Robert Moses (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press). His talent for navigating complex organizational systems led to a parallel career in academic administration, beginning with his tenure as Hamilton’s provost. Still, he always saw himself as a teacher first for all of his 80 semesters in higher education.
In 1978, Gene and his family moved to Sarasota, Florida, where he became the provost of New College. In that role, he was instrumental in bringing the school into the state university system, saving it from potential closure. (The irony that the state is now the college’s greatest threat is not lost on his survivors.) After stepping down as provost, he continued as a professor of political science until he retired in 2007 and moved to Bakersville, North Carolina.
When he wasn’t at his day job, Gene spent an increasing amount of time sculpting in wood, stone and clay. Gene’s father Martin and his uncle Hal
Lewis had been professional artists, and he said he learned much about drawing, design and painting from them. Artist and fellow New College professor Jack Cartlidge was also an important mentor and influence. He “learned by doing” and produced a remarkable body of work. In North Carolina, he worked in a studio next to his home, inspired by the mountains and flora he saw every day. Becoming a full-time artist, like his father, uncle and Jack, was a fundamentally important part of who he was. He continued to make art until MSA made it impossible for him to do so.
He survived childhood polio, as part of the last generation of American children before the vaccine. He outlived Henry Kissinger but not Mel Brooks, and he probably would have been fine with both outcomes. Improbably, he lived long enough to see his beloved Philadelphia Eagles win a Super Bowl. He was a lifelong model railroader, and his favorite locomotive by far was the Pennsylvania Railroad’s GG1. He taught both of his children how to drive a stick shift and how to construct a successful argument, although it was a rare thing when they or anyone else prevailed against him in one.
He was an old hand at navigating academic institutional crises, and he followed the recent developments at New College. He wasn’t there of course, but know this: he rooted for underdogs, not bullies; believed in the inevitability of unintended consequences; and reached deep into his knowledge of Yiddish invective when talking about Governor DeSantis and his cronies.
Gene is survived by his wife Amy Waller; his daughter Katie Martin Lewis and her husband Ted Friedman; his son Charles Henry Lewis and his wife Evette Mezger Lewis; his sister Gloria Parker; his nephew Bob Parker and his great-nieces Norah and Lily Parker; and more friends, former students, proteges and hardware-store acquaintances than we will ever know.