Lewis Reginald F. - Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?: How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-Dollar Business Empire

Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?

How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-Dollar Business Empire

How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-Dollar Business Empire

Reginald F. Lewis and
Blair S. Walker

Black Classic Press
Baltimore

Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?

Copyright 1995

Loida Nicolas Lewis and Blair S. Walker

Published 2005

by Black Classic Press

All Rights Reserved.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2005926148

13 Digit ISBN 978-1-57478-036-9

This special edition was printed by BCP Digital Printing, Inc. to commemorate the opening of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture.

BCP Digital Printing, Inc. is an affiliate company of Black Classic Press

Founded in 1978, Black Classic Press specializes in bringing to light obscure and significant works by and about people of African descent. If our books are not available in your area, ask your local bookseller to order them.

You can obtain a list of our current titles from:

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This book is dedicated to the memory of Reginald F. Lewis, my husband, lover, counselor, best friend, role model, and devoted father to our children, Leslie Lourdes and Christina Savilla. It is also dedicated to Carolyn E. Cooper Lewis Fugett, Reginald Lewiss mother, whose fortitude and wisdom strengthen us all.

LOIDA NICOLAS LEWIS

This book is dedicated to my daughters, Blair and Bria. May the two of you grow up in a world where accomplished African-American entrepreneurs are the rule, rather than the exception.

It is also dedicated to my wife, Felicia, and to my parents, Dolores Pierre and James Walker: I owe the two of you a debt of gratitude for cultivating in me a respect forand love ofthe written word.

BLAIR S. WALKER

Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? was the title of a partial autobiography written by Reginald F. Lewis shortly before his death in January 1993. His words are compelling and provide insight into the success he achieved and the personality and intellect that facilitated that success. Blair S. Walker used Lewiss autobiography as a guide to write a complete biography, based on hundreds of interviews Walker conducted with Lewiss family, friends, colleagues, business partners, associates, and employees. This unique book includes Reginald Lewiss own words, here set in italic type, and Blair Walkers account, which together tell the full story of how Reginald Lewis built a billion-dollar business empire.

I approached this project with a vague sense of trepidation, knowing it would require collaboration with Reginald Lewiss wife, Loida Lewis. Was she after a full and frank accounting of her late husbands life, or did she have a lengthy Valentine in mind? Would her involvement lead to a manuscript bearing little relation to reality?

I neednt have fretted. Loida Lewis proved to be a facilitator of the first order. Her candor and forthrightness were invaluable, as were the insights that only a spouse could provide about someone as intensely private as Reginald Lewis. Whether accompanying me to the Paris restaurant that she and her husband adored, or providing access to Reginald Lewiss school grades, Loida Lewis consistently strove to make this book as complete as possible, in lieu of Reginald Lewis penning it himself.

The other woman who played an instrumental role in bringing this book to fruition was Ruth Mills, my editor. Every first-time author should be so fortunate as to have Ruth walk them through the intricacies of book writing.

Someone whose thoughts move at the speed of light, and talks nearly as fast, Ruth is a walking clearinghouse when it comes to suggestions and ideas for sharpening prose. She was consistently upbeat and encouraging throughout this project and juggled the roles of editor, psychologist, and confidante with panache.

Another individual deserving of special mention is Rene (Butch) Meily, the spokesman for TLC Beatrice International Foods. From a business standpoint, no one spent more time with Reginald Lewis than Butch. Butch traveled frequently with Reginald Lewis and the two of them spent countless hours hatching strategies for dealing with the press.

Butch went over the manuscript with an eye toward ensuring that events were accurate. Butch was also helpful when it came to defining some of the nuances of his late bosss personality.

BLAIR S. WALKER

Strolling briskly along one of Manhattans better known boulevards, 44-year-old Reginald Francis Lewis reared back and unleashed a quick right uppercut. A crisply executed left jab followed, but both punches struck only air, leaving eddies of August humidity in their wake.

Continuing down the Avenue of the Americas in his $2,000, dark blue Italian-made suit, his ruggedly handsome features tinged orange from the mercury street lights, Lewis threw punch after exuberant punch until he grew arm weary. All the while, he flashed a gap-tooth grin and emitted a booming belly laugh as a phalanx of well-dressed business partners accompanying him chuckled too, or looked on with bemused expressions.

Trailing about 50 feet behind with its parking lights on, Lewiss black Mercedes limousine shadowed the group. Inside the car, where the air conditioner was set at precisely 70 degrees and classical music played on the radioper Lewiss instructionsthe driver watched attentively for a casual wave of the hand indicating Lewis was tired of walking and ready to ride.

But on the night of August 6, 1987, Reginald Lewis was in the throes of such an invigorating adrenaline rush he could have walked all night and into the dawn. A successful corporate lawyer who remade himself into a financier and buyer of corporations, Lewis had bought the McCall Pattern Co. for $22.5 million, guided it to record earnings and recently sold it for $65 million, fetching a 90-to-1 return on his investment.

But even that improbable achievement was small potatoes compared with what Lewis had pulled off a few hours earlier: This audacious African-American born to a working-class family in Baltimore had just won the right to buy Beatrice International Foods, a global giant with 64 companies in 31 countries, for just under $1 billion.

Thats why Lewis was happily jabbing his way down the Avenue of the Americas, in a most uncharacteristic public display of mirth and light-heartedness. He and his colleagues had just left the 50th Street offices of investment banker Morgan Stanley, where Lewis signed the papers associated with the Beatrice International auction. Nowforegoing his plush limousineLewis preferred to walk the six blocks from 50th Street to the Harvard Club, located at 44th Street.