With the passing of Lynwood Lewis on Sunday at age 63, Hartsville lost one of its true champions. Lewis was a quiet man who didn’t make a lot of noise and didn’t draw a lot of attention or attempt to draw praise to himself.
As chairman of the Board of Directors of the Butler Heritage Foundation, he worked diligently and tirelessly for the restoration and preservation of the former Butler High School campus as a community center and showpiece for Hartsville and the South Hartsville neighborhood.
His was a vision of a Butler campus that would serve not only as a center for activity and community but that also would anchor a rejuvenated Sixth Street corridor entry into the city.
As Mayor David McFarland said, Lewis understood the value of such a project to the city and the potential it holds for the surrounding neighborhood and the entire community.
Where others saw obstacles, he saw possibilities. He was a community builder.
It was more than appropriate when the city on July 2, during the Butler Heritage Week Annual Banquet, declared that day as Lynwood Lewis Day in Hartsville.
He understood the value and importance of heritage and of Butler’s many contributions to the life of Hartsville. And he understood that if you don’t remember where you’ve been, it’s difficult to know where you’re going.
“He was such a community-oriented person,” McFarland said.
Lynwood Lewis will be remembered not only for his role with the Butler Heritage Foundation but for his love of his family, his love for his church, his involvement with his alma maters, Butler High School and Benedict College, his work in so many other ways in this community and his work as a teacher and the influence he had on so many young lives, an influence that will be felt for generations.
He was, indeed, a gentle man. And he was a man with a heart for others.
Hartsville was blessed to have him for the time we did.
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