Faculty - Mr. Tom Lewis: Biography

During the 1960s and 70s, Tom Lewis worked as a broadcast journalist in three countries, including service as an on-air radio and television reporter for WTOP (then Channel 9) in Washington DC; and as news director for WSVA radio and television in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He also edited a community weekly newspaper, The Shenandoah Valley, in Virginia.

During the 1980s and early 90s, Tom worked as a writer and book editor for Time-Life Books; a roving editor for National Wildlife Magazine; and as editor and publisher of Civil War Magazine. He published three books: Shenandoah in Flames: The Valley Campaign of 1864, Time Life Books, 1987; The Guns of Cedar Creek, Harper & Row, 1988 (called by the New York Times "Rich in political and military relevance for our times."); and For King and Country: The Maturing of George Washington 1748-1760, HarperCollins 1993 ("...a terrific story and Lewis tells it with rare narrative skill," according to the Los Angeles Times).

In the latter 1990s, Tom created and hosted the radio talk-show Talk About the Quality of Life, aired on radio stations in Winchester, Leesburg and Front Royal. He was recruited as the president of Living History Cam, which became the leading Internet provider of streaming video of major living history events across the United States before losing its funding in the dot-com collapse. Tom returned to broadcasting as a contract newscaster and anchor for The Voice of America. He also wrote another book -- West from Shenandoah: A Scotch-Irish Family Fights for America 1729-1781, John Wiley & Sons 2004.

Tom has been for decades, and continues to be, a strong advocate of environmental stewardship and sustainable living. He lives on a farm in West Virginia and has business interests in Cumberland, MD.