For 116 years, Peirce College was governed by a member of the founding Peirce family. Starting with Thomas May Peirce’s founding of the school in 1865 and ending with Thomas May Peirce III’s retirement in 1981, the family led the school in its mission to provide working adults with career-oriented educations. But in 1981, the Peirce family let another carry that torch; it passed on the proud tradition to Dr. Raymond C. Lewin.

Renowned for being an innovator in education. Dr. Lewin previously worked as an educational administrator at Montclair State College and served as Dean of the Edward Williams College of Fairleigh-Dickinson University before ascending to the presidency at Peirce. Lewin, who obtained his doctorate in education from Columbia University, focused first set his sights on renovating the school’s historical building at 1420 Pine Street before expanding night and weekend classes to better serve working adults.

A democratic president by nature, he also broadened the responsibility of the Administrative Council, delegating authority as he saw fit. Internal communications and college involvement quickly improved under his leadership.

His belief in his people shown through when the school paper asked him how he felt about becoming “the new captain of the U.S.S. Peirce.” He replied that the crew (faculty and staff) was competent, dedicated and fully invested in the welfare of all its students (mates).

Picking up where the Peirce family left off, Lewin reinforced the focus on business training and established computer courses to better prepare students for the increasingly computerized office world. The data processing field was exploding in popularity, and Peirce College’s president wanted to evolve the school to serve this new workplace need by instilling students with the skills and knowledge they needed to work in the field.

A forward-thinking man on technology, Lewin predicted that computers would one day be hooked into cable TV and into other computers through a central computer bank. Years later, the internet would prove his prognostications right.

In addition, he rolled out the College’s American Bar Association-approved paralegal studies program in 1985, which is still around and preparing students for stellar legal careers today. In fact, the legal department has since expanded to offer criminal justice and business law curriculums as well as its paralegal one.

Dr. Lewin may not have born the Peirce name, but he was Peirce through and through, nonetheless. In 1990, author Carl Fassl wrote that under Dr. Lewin’s leadership, “Peirce still means business.”