On WCOA this morning, Dr. Martha Saunders, president of the University of West Florida, discussed Lewis Bear Jr.’s commitment to the university.
“For many years, he served on our foundation board of directors and then later on our board of trustees and played a major role in the development of university infrastructure programs and processes,” she shared. “He was a hands-on board member. I mean that in a good way, in that he wanted to understand; he wanted to see where he could be of most help. But he also never, ever wavered from a commitment to the community and wanted to be sure that the work that we were doing at the university was work that would benefit this community.”
Dr. Saunders noted that Lewis helped launch UWF’s logistics and supply chain management program and created the Bear Family Foundation Engineering endowment to support the engineering program.”He had a hand in the partnership that we have with Florida State University Medical School for physical therapy. He looked for opportunities that leveraged the strengths of the university to benefit the region and the community.”
Calling Lewis a “force of nature,” Dr. Saunders later added, “It’s just hard to imagine a world without him.”