By Hank Shield

Photo credit: Shepherd Lewis.

New to the Upper School this year, but a legend among Cougars, Upper School history teacher Shepherd Lewis has made his return to the classroom in classes like US History Survey and other history electives. You may know him as the guy that does impressions, or as a coach, but now you may know him as a teacher. 

Lewis, originally from Richmond, grew up as the youngest child in his family and went to Collegiate throughout eighth grade, until his parents decided to move to Tappahannock, where he finished out his years in high school at Christchurch School. As a student, he played soccer, indoor soccer, and baseball, but not lacrosse, which he coaches now, along with soccer. Lewis “played both baseball and lacrosse growing up and played lacrosse in eighth grade at Collegiate, and [I] got down to Christchurch, and my best friends were playing baseball, so I played baseball.”

Lewis played baseball all four years at Christchurch, and after finishing college at Sewanee, The University of the South, he got a new job as a history teacher at Christchurch. Lewis also coached as an assistant for the lacrosse team because he enjoyed helping young men develop their lacrosse skills and implementing important values in their everyday lives. After he left Christchurch, he came to work at Collegiate as a Middle School history teacher and baseball coach in 2005. 

Lewis grew up believing that he would follow in his mother’s footsteps and become an English teacher, but as he advanced towards college he slowly started to gain interest in US history. His senior year he took a US history class, and the class “clicked with him” and “I became a deeper thinker… and enjoyed the intellectual challenge it presented.” His freshman year at Sewanee, he took a 20th-century history class that “hooked” him from there on out, and he decided to major in the subject.

Once at Collegiate, Lewis spent ten years teaching in the Middle School and then decided to work with alumni and help with fundraising for Collegiate in the Development Office. After seven years working with alumni, Lewis really missed the classroom experience, because all his previous Middle School students graduated, and he felt like there was a void that he needed to fill. Lewis wanted to continue watching his students grow and develop, so when Upper School history teacher Dr. Brian Ross retired at the end of the 2019-2020 school year, Lewis jumped at the chance to teach US History Survey and some honors history electives. 

He has had to adapt to the present challenge of coronavirus and thinks that “technology has allowed us to move forward in a way that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to.” Lewis is thankful that Collegiate has the resources available to continue school in person. He also talked about how “years ago, people predicted that in-person schools would eventually die out, and everyone would want to go to an online platform” and “think[s] COVID has taught us the value of in-person learning.”    

Recently, due to quarantine, Lewis has started to play his acoustic guitar more often, but only when his family can’t hear him, and he’s started to cook dinner more often for his family. Lewis has two children, ages six and nine, who attend Collegiate. He enjoys the newfound freedom he has to spend more time with his family and kids. Under quarantine, he has also rewatched the show Arrested Development. 

Lewis is glad to return to school and the classroom so he can continue to help students reach their highest potential.