Former NSU president Ovid Lewis, J.D., 78, died on Jan. 26. He served as president from 1994-1997. He also served as vice president of Academic Affairs from 1984-1994 and dean of the Shepard Broad Law Center from 1979 – 1984.
Frank DePiano, Ph.D., vice president of Academic Affairs, said Lewis implemented a more academic presence at NSU.
“His presidency was a transitional presidency from an older way of thinking to a more professional way of thinking as a business,” DePiano said.
DePiano said that Lewis never sought the limelight during his tenure.
“His preference was to be behind the scenes to make things work. He was president out of a sense of loyalty to the university and commitment,” DePiano said. “The transition needed to be done and he did it.”
Johnny Burris, professor of law, and Lewis’s student in the Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University, said that Lewis was special.
“He was a person who strove to create great opportunities for others,” Burris said. “He was an inspiration for many with the way he approached solving problems and accomplishing things.”
Burris said that Lewis led the NSU law center to accreditation by the American Bar Association.
“The school’s success today is due to his deanship,” Burris said. “I miss him a lot.”
Chancellor Ray Ferrero Jr. said that Lewis was a devoted family man.
“He and his wife were inseparable,” Ferrero said. “He was very devoted to her. The two of them used to go to church together every morning.”
Burris said that a tribute article to Lewis will be published in the next edition of the Nova Law Review.
