DECEMBER 7, 1942
Reginald F. Lewis is born in Baltimore, Maryland.
"Why should white guys have all the fun?"
RFL
1948 - AGE 6
Lewis afrms that race relations will be better when he grows up because, “Why should white guys have all the fun?”
1952 - AGE 10
Lewis set up a delivery service to distribute the Afro American newspaper.
1954 - AGE 12
Lewis sells his paper route for a profit after growing it to more than 100 customers.
1957
Lewis selects and attends Dunbar High School in West Baltimore and becomes a triple threat athlete in football, basketball, and baseball.
1958
RFL takes a full-time job at a country club instead of playing baseball during the summer.
CIRCA 1960
Lewis tells a friend, “I know that what I’d like is to be the richest black man in America.”
“I know that what I’d like is to be the richest black man in America.”
RFL
1961
Lewis is awarded a football scholarship to attend Virginia State University
1965
Lewis is invited to attend Harvard Law School-the only student in the history of the school to be admitted without applying.
1968
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Lewis is recruited by prestigious law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.
1968
Lewis marries Loida Nicolas, an equally bright and promising attorney from the Philippines.
1970
Lewis leaves his job to start Wall Street's first African American law firm with a few colleagues.
1983
Lewis decides that he would rather “do the deals himself” and establishes TLC Group, L.P., a venture capital firm.
1983
TLC Group buys the struggling McCall Pattern Company for a reported $22.5.
"I have a rule: I never talk about a deal until it's done."
RFL
1987
After successfully reviving the McCall, Lewis sells it for $90 million, a 90-to-1 return on his money.
1987
Months after selling McCall, Lewis outbids Citicorp to buy TLC Beatrice International for $985 million, the largest offshore buyout in American history at the time.
1987
TLC reports annual sales of $1.8 billion, making it the first black-owned company to pass the billion-dollar mark.
1987
Lewis establishes the Reginald F. Lewis Foundation and donates $1 million to Howard University.
1992
Lewis donates $3 million to Harvard Law School, the largest grant in history at the time. As a result, Harvard honored Lewis with the Reginald F. Lewis International Law Center.