everend W. Jack Lewis Memorial

Wednesday, June 19, 2002 Reverend CU pastor dead at 86 Lewis' impact felt on campus, in community By ESTHER CAMPI Ithaca Journal Staff ITHACA -- Friends remember The Rev. W. Jack Lewis, director of Cornell United Religious Work from 1965 to 1981, as a campus peacemaker in the turbulent '60s, a man who emptied his own pockets for locals in need and a master story teller who never lost his West Texas drawl. Lewis, 86, a Presbyterian minister who dubbed himself a "generic pastor" to people of all faiths, died Saturday of cancer at his home at Kendal at Ithaca retirement community. "He was the dean of Ithaca clergy," said Rabbi Scott Glass, leader of Ithaca's Temple Beth-El congregation for 26 years. "My impression of him was that he was an emissary from God, sent to do good in the world, and he did that at every turn." Colleagues said Lewis left behind a legacy of graciousness toward the failings of others, compassion for those who were hurting and a brand of social-justice advocacy that punched holes in religious and racial barriers. "He was a universal man of faith whose ministry was inclusive and reached beyond traditional religious boundaries," said Tim Marchell, director of Alcohol Policy Initiatives at Cornell and a longtime friend. The Rev. John A. "Jack" Taylor, former minister of the First Unitarian Church of Ithaca and an emeritus Cornell chaplain, said Lewis boosted the self-esteem of all who came into contact with him. "Jack Lewis recognized the highest goals of his fellow human beings and treated them as if they had arrived," he said. Lewis, who joined Cornell University in 1964 as associate director of Cornell United Religious Work(CURW), took over as director the following year. The Rev. John Lee Smith, CURW's former director of studies and the man who recruited Lewis to Ithaca, remembers Lewis as a key campus figure in the 1960s, smoothing relationships between faculty, administrators and students. "He was somehow trying to bridge the gap," Smith said. "I thought that was an important role and he played it very well." Calling Lewis "a minister of reconciliation around racial issues," Cal Walker, a deacon at Ithaca's Calvary Baptist Church and associate director of the Learning Strategies Center at Cornell, said Lewis reached out to the leaders of Ithaca's African-American churches. "He knew them by name and they held him in the highest esteem," he said. Marchell said Lewis' sensitivity to divisive racial policies grew out of his experience as a Navy chaplain in World War II, when he was assigned to two different units -- one white, the other black. "That profoundly shaped his thinking about race relations," Marchell said, recalling how Lewis preached a message of racial healing to thousands of American military personnel before they were discharged from duty. Marion Howe, a 44-year employee of Cornell United Religious Work, said Lewis was a friend to anybody who needed one. "It didn't matter the background at all," she said. "Human persons, he saw as valuable living beings. And that was the way he governed his whole life and thinking." Off campus, friends say, Lewis was a force for good in the local community, performing countless weddings, funerals and memorial services, and holding posts as president of the Alcoholism Council of Tompkins County and co-founder of Suicide Prevention and Crisis Service. In 1983 Lewis became Cornell's pastoral consultant at Cayuga Medical Center, and a year later he helped start the Cornell Visitors Program, with volunteers calling on patients, fetching newspapers and running errands for Cornell-related patients and others. He also worked closely with the late Mary Durham to create the Durham Trust for Hospital Chaplaincy at Cayuga Medical Center. "Jack was an extremely caring and empathetic individual who devoted himself to the provision of care and comfort for those in need," said Alan Pedersen, the hospital's vice president for human resources. "He reached out to people and possessed an extraordinary warmth and compassion." Those who knew him said Lewis' empathy spilled beyond official duties to one-on-one relationships. He used to dip into his own bank account to help cash-strapped locals, said Rabbi Morris Goldfarb, 32-year director of Cornell Hillel. "I balled him out," Goldfarb recalled. "I said, 'Jack, for God's sake, if you want to be a saint, do it on your own time." After a major surgery in the mid-80s, Walker remembers that Lewis had his own personal recliner delivered to Walker's home to speed his recovery. "He told me to keep it as long as I wanted," he added. When tested by physical challenges in his own life, including an accident in recent years that crushed both of his legs, Lewis showed extraordinary courage and determination, said former Cornell President Dale Corson. "I never thought he'd be able to walk again, but he did. He went right back to his hospital rounds," Corson said, adding that Lewis worked until his death to improve neighbors' quality of life at Kendal at Ithaca. Before joining Cornell, Lewis worked for 13 years as founder and director of the Christian Faith and Life Community, a program affiliated with the University of Texas that drew national attention for its pathbreaking mission to train lay people. "His work there was really pioneering in terms of university ministries," said the Rev. Robert Johnson, CURW's director from 1982 until last year. "It was an attempt to give lay people the kind of theological education that ministers got and to expose them to the best thinking in the church." Chuckling, Corson said Lewis' only major failure in Ithaca was a thwarted attempt to replace the "impossibly uncomfortable pews in Sage Chapel" with chairs, a proposal that sparked an alumni revolt. Regardless, family members and friends plan to gather in that very campus spot for a memorial celebration of life at 3 p.m. July 7. Lewis himself reflected on the meaning of life and death in an interview with The Journal during his career at Cornell. "We're all terminal, whether we like it or not," he said. "... So the question is not how we're going to die, but how we're going to live."