Page 14 - WL-Fall-Magazine-2022

Woman
to Woman
Dr. Linda Lewis: Six Decades
of Service and Gratitude

At age 82, Dr. Linda D. Lewis says that a key to and have been enriched by those experiences, many
living your best life is to always express grat- of which I have shared with students, fellow faculty,
itude. Growing up in a tiny town in West patients, and families. Being free from student debt
Virginia, her parents modeled a life of serv- allowed me to select the medical specialty that was
ing the community and volunteering. “My father was most attractive to me… Please share my note of grati-
elected mayor and my mother was very active in the tude with others at Woman’s Life Insurance Society.
community,” Dr. Lewis recalls. “They taught me to al- In anticipation of your question, yes, I do still have a
ways thank people, maintain proper relationships, and policy with the Society.”
express gratitude.”
In the mid-to-late 1950s, the WBA Board of Directors
Even after all these years, Dr. Lewis still thinks about recognized that there was a nationwide shortage of
her scholarship from Woman’s Life (then known as the nurses and doctors. In response, the board developed
Woman’s Benefit Association or WBA) back in 1957 a brand-new scholarship benefit designed to bring
when she was a member of Review 55, Beech Bottom, more students into the medical field. Dr. Lewis was
West Virginia. She recently wrote a letter to Woman’s one of the first members to receive a scholarship from
Life President Chris Martin expressing her apprecia- this new WBA program. Remarkably, her service
tion. “I write to thank the Woman’s Life Insurance teaching medical students, interns, residents, pa-
Society for their investment in my college education, tients, and families at Columbia University Irving
1957–1961, at Bethany College in West Virginia,” she Medical Center in New York continued until her re-
said in her letter this past April. “The scholarship pro- cent retirement on June 30th. She is sharp, witty, and
vided the opportunity to be essentially debt free when speaks openly about her life, her career, and what it
graduating from medical school. I have hopefully eased means live in service to others.
the lives of hundreds, indeed thousands, of patients for
whom I have had the terrific opportunity to provide Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a
care and support over many decades.” doctor?

Dr. Lewis graduated magna cum laude in 1961 with a Dr. Lewis: When I was in 5th grade. I had an unusu-
bachelor of science degree from Bethany College and al upbringing. My father, reared on a farm in Kentucky,
achieved her medical degree from the West Virginia
University School of Medicine in 1965. Post-doctorate,
she completed two residencies in medicine and neurol-
ogy. Her career included a range of academic and
professional positions in medicine, including serving
as associate dean for student affairs at Columbia
University College of Physicians and Surgeons for over
25 years. As dean, she established the Committee on
Student Housing, the Task Force on Minority Affairs,
and introduced the Wellness Program and the Aid to
Impaired Medical Students Program, which gave stu-
dents access to a social worker and a personal private
counselor who lived in the student dorm.

In her letter, Dr. Lewis also expressed gratitude for
good health, family, and wide interests. “These broad
experiences started when a college student and ex-
panded exponentially in the years that followed,” she
wrote. “I have traveled widely throughout the world

12 WOMANSLIFE.ORG FALL 2022