Earlier this year, Chuck Lewis approached the board of directors of the Center for Public Integrity–the widely respected watchdog group he heads in Washington, D.C.–with a special request.
Among the journalists of national repute who help guide the center are Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Isabel Wilkerson; Susan Loewenberg, director of L.A. Theatre Works and producer of more than 200 hours of radio drama programming; and Ben Sherwood, broadcast producer for NBC Nightly News.
"I told them, in essence, that after having done this for eight years, and never asking them for anything personally, I had one thing I wanted them to do for me," Lewis, AS ’75, says. "I was that impassioned.
"I said there was this person who had tremendously influenced my life. He taught me that it’s not the actual substance of your work, it’s the lives you touch. Ultimately, that’s what is most important. I told them I wanted to reciprocate and honor his life and legacy."
The man whose impact Lewis described to his board is Jim Soles, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Political Science and International Relations. Lewis is among the hundreds of current and former students who feel a deep loyalty toward Soles, who has been a mentor and friend to students throughout his career at Delaware.
"The board members didn’t hesitate. They unanimously said, ‘Yes, absolutely,’" Lewis says.
Thus was born the Center for Public Integrity’s James R. Soles Junior Fellowship, to be awarded each year to the most qualified UD graduate in political science. Under the $18,000 fellowship, the graduate does research for the center for one year, working closely with Lewis.
Established by Lewis in 1990, the center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that investigates and analyzes important national issues, such as the politics of airline safety, the government’s regulation of toxic chemicals and public and private sector ethics. Over the past eight years, the center has released more than 30 influential investigative reports, including the acclaimed The Buying of the President and The Buying of the Congress.
In the early ’70s, when Lewis was an undergraduate at UD, Soles advised him, among other things, to apply for an internship with Delaware’s U.S. Sen. William V. Roth. Lewis became the first UD intern to work in Roth’s office.
But, it wasn’t just Soles’ role in his own life that inspired Lewis to honor him. Lewis has known Soles long enough to know that the professor’s efforts on his behalf were nothing unusual, that he was just one of many students in whom Soles took a personal interest.
"I don’t think it’s a stretch to say there have been very few professors who have touched more students personally than Jim Soles–touched them, inspired them, mentored them," Lewis says. "There are literally hundreds and hundreds of people out there for whom Jim Soles was a major influence.
"And, he’s not one of those star people, taking only the Phi Beta Kappa or the academic all-star under his wing. He also would take the students who had a 2.0 and didn’t know what to do with their lives, wondered whether they would stay in school. Jim would be there to listen to them, to be their sounding board, and lo and behold, they would get their degrees. It would change their lives."
Lewis had been thinking for some time about a way of honoring Soles. A journalist who has written for several national publications and worked for ABC News, CBS News and 60 Minutes, Lewis was recently awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the "genius award." His $275,000 award carries no restrictions and can be used however he wishes.
Lewis saw the fellowship as a way of expanding his own mentoring role. He has for years enjoyed working with the young people who have served as interns at the center. But, the disadvantage of the briefer internships has been that "by the time you know them and they know what they’re doing, it’s time for them to leave," Lewis says.
The Soles junior fellowship will give the center an energetic young worker for a full calendar year and will give Lewis the chance to get to know young people who are just starting out in their careers.
"My wife jokes that I should be a career counselor," Lewis says. "I really do enjoy working with young people."
"I’ve known Mr. Lewis for a long time," Soles says. "We’ve stayed in touch in the years since he’s left Delaware. We used to get together for breakfast about once a month. And, I remember speaking with him after he had left CBS, when the idea for the center was first coming together. I have the utmost respect for the work he’s done there."
The connection between Soles and Lewis dates back to 1972, when Lewis first had Soles as a professor. Lewis recalls Soles’ upper-level seminar called "Judicial Process."
"He really turned my thinking upside-down, which is what any good teacher does," Lewis says. "Our final exam for that class was one question, ‘If you were arrested for a felony, would you have a better chance flipping a coin or going through the legal process?’
"I had just come out of high school, you know, from the atmosphere of the civics class, and this was just heresy," Lewis says.
For his part, Soles recalls a paper Lewis wrote for him that, in retrospect, seems to foreshadow the path Lewis has taken in life. The paper focused on the career of the late U.S. Sen. John Williams, the three-term Delaware Republican who preceded Sen. Roth. Williams had a national reputation for his irreproachable ethics.
While Lewis remembers Soles as a tremendous classroom teacher, it’s his role as a mentor, as a person who takes a personal interest in students, that puts Soles in a category all his own, Lewis says.
"With all the pressures that academics are under, very rarely is there a premium placed on interaction with students," Lewis says. "It’s no coincidence that Dr. Soles was the first Alumni Distinguished Professor."
Soles is characteristically modest in responding to Lewis’ praise. He quotes a former student, who explained the professor’s involvement with his students this way: "Dr. Soles is built that way. He doesn’t have any choice."
"Of course, that’s true in a way," Soles says. "I enjoy talking with people, and I always have. I became a professor to work with students. I have done research, and I have published a little, but I consider myself primarily a teacher.
"I think a teacher has an extraordinary opportunity to work with young people at a particularly formative period in their lives. And, I find that personally a very satisfying thing to do."This quality in Soles makes the fellowship a particularly apt tribute, Lewis says.
"Considering Jim’s dedication to helping students along in their careers, this is the most fitting tribute I could provide," he says. "For any young person, this is a fabulous window into Washington, D.C. We have incredible interaction with national news media, nonprofit organizations all over the country, government agencies at all levels. The office is two blocks away from the White House."
The first fellow, 1998 graduate Dan Steinberg, is on the job now, helping to research a report on the campaign finance profiles of leading contenders for the 2000 presidential election.
"We’re putting together a sort of ethical biography of anyone who may become a candidate," Steinberg says. "The center’s goal is to have more information gathered on the candidates than anyone else."
This assignment has found Steinberg in the Library of Congress and the Congressional Records Room, gathering disclosure forms on potential candidates. He has also helped to place information from the center’s most recent report, The Buying of the Congress, on the center’s web site <www.publicintegrity.org>.
"Last week, Dan was over at The New York Times’ Washington bureau," Lewis says. "An outgoing member of Congress, as his last act before leaving, slipped language into the budget bill exempting methyl bromide, a major pollutant, from clean air regulations. We thought somebody needed to know about this."
Steinberg, who majored in history and political science, was one of two graduates recognized at Commencement last May for achieving the highest cumulative grade index at the University.
One might see Steinberg’s current position as the latest point in a line of mentoring, back from Lewis to Soles and beyond.
"I had a mentor myself, of course," Soles says, "Prof. Marian D. Irish. She made a great difference in my life by making it possible for me to go to graduate school.
"There’s no way you can repay a person that makes that kind of fundamental difference in your life. But, as [my mentor] said to me at the time, ‘Pass it on, Jim.’ And, that’s what I’ve tried to do."
–Patrick Collier, AS ’99PhD