In 1987, Reginald F. Lewis led the $985 million acquisition of Beatrice's overseas food businesses. He became chairman and chief executive officer of TLC Beatrice International, overseeing companies operating across dozens of countries. The transaction followed his ownership and sale of McCall Pattern Company. Before making those acquisitions, Lewis had spent years practicing corporate law and structuring investments for business clients.
Lewis was born in Baltimore on December 7, 1942. As a boy, he sold the Afro-American newspaper on a delivery route. He attended Dunbar High School and entered Virginia State on a football scholarship in 1961. A later summer program introduced him to Harvard Law School, where he graduated in 1968. He began practicing law in New York and subsequently helped establish his own firm, advising on corporate transactions and investments in minority-owned businesses.
He formed the TLC Group in 1983. In January 1984, he acquired McCall Pattern in a $22.5 million leveraged buyout. His work there included changes to operations and marketing before the company's sale in 1987. The Beatrice transaction came later that year. These were purchases of operating businesses, with financing and debt to manage alongside their products and sales. By 1992, the foundation's account records TLC Beatrice's annual company sales above $1.8 billion.
Lewis also directed money toward legal education. A gift from him and his wife, Loida Nicolas-Lewis, supported Harvard's Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship, which helps a recent law school graduate prepare for a teaching career. Fellows conduct research and produce an article for publication, with opportunities to attend workshops and audit courses. Harvard named its International Law Center in his honor. The existing university building underwent a renovation in 2021 and was renamed the Reginald F. Lewis Law Center, housing research groups and clinical work, including the Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic, as well as meeting and office space.
Lewis died on January 19, 1993, at age fifty. During his illness, he had expressed an interest in supporting a museum of African American culture. His foundation later committed $5 million to the proposed Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in Baltimore. The grant established an endowment whose earnings would support education. The foundation considered the museum's partnership with Maryland's education department, which planned an African American curriculum for the state's public schools, before making the grant. The museum opened in 2005 and documents Black history and culture in Maryland through exhibitions and programs.
