Reginald Francis Lewis was born in Baltimore on Dec. 7, 1942. He acquired his first job at age 10, delivering the Baltimore African-American newspaper. During one summer when Lewis was away at camp, his mother delivered the route for him.

When Lewis returned, he asked his mother for his profits. She refused, saying she'd done all the work. Young Lewis threatened to sue his mother. His mother finally agreed to give Lewis the money, but not before imparting an important business lesson: ''Set your terms up front.''

Lewis earned a football scholarship at Virginia State (now Virginia State University) but a shoulder injury shelved his career as a quarterback. Lewis had struggled in the classroom early on. But with football pushed aside, he began applying his trademark tenacity toward his books and earned a degree in economics.

During a summer minority program at Harvard Law School, he so impressed professors there that he was granted admission without taking the entrance exam.

He finished Harvard in 1968 and began practicing law in Manhattan. Lewis was chairman of TLC Beatrice International Holdings, the nation's largest black-owned business, which had been set up by 1983, generated revenues of more than $1 billion,

In his first major deal he bought a struggling company for $22.5 million, restored it to financial health and sold it after four years for $90 million.

In 1987, Lewis engineered the largest leveraged buyout ever of an international company when he acquired Beatrice, a France-based food company, for $985 million.

Lewis died of brain cancer in January 1993, leaving behind his wife, Loida, and daughters Leslie and Christina.