Glenn Lewis

Fort Worth attorney and former state representative Glenn Lewis parlayed his second chance at TCC into a career that allowed him to aid his Tarrant County alma mater at a critical time. 

Lewis said that helping secure the funding to establish Southeast Campus ranks as one of his most satisfying accomplishments in a lifetime built on the value of giving back. 

The importance of involvement played out before him, inspiring him to select law as a profession, because his mother was the secretary to Tarrant County's only African-American attorney at that time, L. Clifford Davis. Davis' office often was the hub of civil rights activity in Fort Worth. 

"Helping community has always been important to me. I grew up around a community involved in community service," said Lewis, now a partner of Linebarger,  Goggan, Blair and Sampson and chair of the Board of Regents at Texas Southern University in Houston. 

Lewis ran for public office two years after he earned his J.D. in 1983 from The University of Texas Law School. 

But his success did not happen overnight. It was preceded by a short tenure at a four-year college away from home soon after high school graduation. "I simply lacked the self-discipline and material resources early on," Lewis said. 

Four years later, he resumed his education, earning an associate degree at TCC and a B.A. at Texas Wesleyan University. "Hard work, maturity and my wife, Arveda, helped me to overcome," said Lewis. 

TCC has a strong presence in the Lewis family. His wife is a graduate, his son attended summer school, and, both his son and daughter participated in College for Kids. Other members of his large family attended at various times. "I think it is a great buy in an academic or vocational education," Lewis said.

-by Rita L.B. Parson