The late Edythe Lewis, a former Dayton city commissioner and widow of Lloyd E. Lewis, Jr., saw many children suffering from acute health problems during her career as a public health nurse and school nurse during the 1950s and 1960s. “Many came to school so hungry that they couldn’t concentrate on their lessons,” she said in a 2003 Dayton Foundation article.
In 1989, the Lewises established the Lloyd and Edythe Lewis Fund for Black Children’s Health Care as part of the African-American Community Fund of The Dayton Foundation. While Edythe and Lloyd are no longer with us, their memory lives on through their endowed fund that has awarded grants totaling more than $97,000 to date. Their vision continues to meet the health needs of homeless and underserved children in our region – a promise they made to uphold in perpetuity 37 years ago.