Morgan Lewis lost her second battle with lung cancer at her home on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, on Friday, Dec. 7.
Morgan was born Jan. 14, 1956, and grew up in Flint, Michigan, with her parents and three siblings. She graduated high school from Kingswood School Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., in 1974, where her passion for the arts was nurtured.
After earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Michigan State University in 1978, Morgan became our “Island” sister.
Manhattan was Morgan’s first Island home where she pursued creating art for purely artistic purposes. Morgan loved living in Greenwich Village while earning her Master of Fine Arts degree at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.
With her MFA degree, Morgan pursued mentoring students and assisting other artists at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, NY. She was alumni news editor, coordinated famous art alumni exhibitions and supervised students in exhibit installations. As development associate, Morgan wrote grants for tuition-free College of Art, Architecture and Engineering. Morgan was also a contributing editor for the quarterly publication At Cooper Union and was exhibit coordinator of the college’s Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery.
Hilo, Hawaii, became Morgan’s next island home in 1990. Here Morgan began using art to help others less fortunate. She began as an office manager and very quickly became a program counselor supervising the managers of a group residential home providing transitional rehabilitation for adults with serious mental illness.
St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, became Morgan’s last island home when she moved there from Hawaii. Continuing to use art to help others, in 1994 Morgan began working for the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Health on St. Croix. She worked as a certified psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner (CPRP). Morgan developed program support from the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts and from other foundations to provide supportive counseling in a psychosocial rehabilitation program for adults with serious and persistent mental illness. She supervised other mental health workers and offered supportive counseling as needed.
Her family and friends will miss her dry humor and whimsical creativity. Her thoughtfulness shown through, often tied up in covers of The New Yorker, her favorite wrapping paper.
Morgan was preceded in death by her father, Raymond Parker Lewis Jr. (Flint, Mich.); and sister, Kathleen Drewyer (West Palm Beach, Fla.);
She is survived by her mother, Elizabeth (Joseph) Doerr (Hendersonville, N.C.); brother, Laurence (Cathy) Lewis (Saline, Mich.); her sister, Patricia Lewis (Bay City, Mich.); nephew Kevin (Sarah) Lewis (Saline, Mich.); and beloved cat, Miss B (St. Croix).
Morgan would like any memorial contributions made to your local animal shelter or to the American Cancer Society.
