Arthur Winston Lewis ’66

Arthur Winston Lewis ’66 passed away peacefully on January 10 in Wilmette, Illinois. Arthur was born July 1, 1926, in New York City. He left Dartmouth early to enlist in the Navy in 1943 and served for 23 years until 1966. While on active duty he returned to Dartmouth to work with the Navy ROTC and teach naval science. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s in government at Dartmouth in 1966. Arthur was a career foreign service officer who served in diplomatic missions in Eastern Europe and Africa before retiring in 1987. He also played a significant role in expanding opportunities for racial and ethnic minorities in the American diplomatic corps. In 1966 Arthur joined the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), and, with the support of the Ford Foundation, expanded the minority recruitment program for USIA to focus on African American, Latino, and Native American college students. Arthur began his foreign service career in 1969 when he was assigned to the U.S. embassy in Romania as cultural affairs officer. He went on to serve in Zambia, Ethiopia, and Nigeria before being named USIA’s director of African affairs in 1979. In 1983 President Ronald Reagan nominated Arthur as U.S. ambassador to Sierra Leone, a post he occupied until retirement in 1987. Arthur continued to promote international political and economic development in Africa after his retirement from diplomatic service and was a senior consultant for the Nord Resources Corp., which operated mining interests in Sierra Leone from 1983 to 1995. He is survived by three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.