ROBERT M. "BOB" LEWIS
Died July 3, 2011
KINSTON -- Robert M. Lewis, 80, died Sunday, July 3, 2011, at Kitty Askins Hospice Center.
A celebration of life service will be held in the Parlor of Saint Mary's Episcopal Church at 2 p.m. Monday, July 11, 2011. Deacon Robert L. Hicks of Staunton, Va., will officiate. The family will receive friends in the parlor following the service.
Bob was born and grew up in Wilson. His favorite retreat was his back yard where he enjoyed bird watching and nature's beauty with his beloved companion, his dog, Rosie. He also enjoyed playing golf at Bill Fay Park with his longtime friends and working in his yard. An avid scholar and reader, he spent numerous hours at the Kinston-Lenoir County Public Library. Until his later years, he enjoyed tennis, sailing, fishing, swimming, weight-lifting and physical fitness exercise. He was best known as an artist of pastoral water colors of nature scenes and drawings depicting historical Eastern Carolina farm life.
Bob was proud of his country and served on a battleship with the US Navy during the Korean Conflict. He began his career as a Banker in Wilson and in the early 1960s, he followed his true passion, art. He returned to education, receiving an under-graduate degree at Atlantic Christian College and a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. After a long career, he retired from LCC where he was an art instructor and developed the college's first official insignia. He was loved and respected by his students and maintained contact with many of them after his retirement.
He is preceded in death by his parents, Johnnie and Lucille McIntosh Lewis of Wilson. Survivors include his wife of 30 years, Donna Hicks Lewis; son, Robert M. Lewis and wife, Gloria Lightsey Lewis, of Chapel Hill; stepson and family, Kenneth Robert Waldron and wife, Chrystal Clark Waldron, and their children, Anabelle Clark and Alaina Grace Waldron. He will also be missed by his young prayer and swim buddy, William Carter, 6, of Winterville.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Kinston-Lenoir County Public Library, 510 North Queen St., Kinston, NC 28501.
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on July 10, 2011 12:38 PM