During the years before his death, Reginald F. Lewis was arguably the richest African-American on the planet. Following his graduation from Virginia State University in 1965, Lewis entered Harvard Law School. Upon graduation from Harvard, he headed straight to Wall St. where he began his career as a lawyer and private equity dealmaker. His 1987 purchase of the international holdings of Beatrice Foods was a stunning accomplishment.  At the time, it was the largest international leveraged buyout ever completed in the United States. Reginald F. Lewis emerged as the central figure behind the deal and became the owner of this $2 Billion-Dollar enterprise.

Reginald and I first met each other as teenagers in our West Baltimore neighborhood in 1956. We went on to become high school competitors, college football teammates, and roomates at Virginia State University. We remained friends until his untimely death in 1993. It is from the vantage point of a close friend during a critical 10 year period in his life that I've chosen to write this book. Still, today, Lewis and his achievements remain a question mark to many. The stories in this book are a tribute to this remarkable man's ability to overcome a number of challenges as a young man, on his way to becoming one of the great businessmen of the 20th Centrury.

"Reginald F. Lewis Before TLC Beatrice: The Young Man Before The Billion-Dollar Empire," is the story of the making of the man, before the making of the money.