Lewis started at UT at the invitation of Mary Anne Moore, who was at that time a graduate student in physics. They were both members of the Smoky Mountain Astronomical Society, and she mentioned that the department needed someone to conduct observing sessions on a part-time basis. Lewis took the job and began guiding interested parties through constellations and planetary configurations. Then one day a telephone call changed all that.

"Someone in the office wanted to know if we had anyone who could do a program at a school," Lewis said, and the challenge went to him.

"I said, 'I've never done that sort of thing before--what do you do?' and they said 'well, we've got some slides around here somewhere.'"

He gathered some slides, pieced together a program on the solar system, and went off to the school. The teacher told another teacher and "the next thing I know, I'm getting more and more phone calls," he said.

At present, Lewis talks to nearly 7,000 kids per year at about 50 different venues. Even when school is out for the summer, there are still presentations at science camps and other special programs, such as the University's Kids U program. It's a big part of his job, and something Lewis never tires of.

"If I had to say I was proudest of anything, it's my ability to communicate with kids," he said. "The only evidence I really have for it is that we still have their attention at the end of the program."

Among the thousands of teachers and students who have met him throughout his visits, Lewis is probably best-known for his striking resemblance to the North Pole's most celebrated resident.

"Teachers call me the guy who looks like Santa Claus," he said, stroking his long silver beard.

"The beard is part of the persona," he said. "That's why I don't ever cut it off."

But behind the image is a man who genuinely enjoys the company of children and is continually amazed at how much they know.

"You hear questions from these kids that you wish college students would ask," he said, crediting the Internet with making astronomy much more accessible and interesting to younger kids. He recently had a six-year-old say to him at a viewing session, "I know about black holes, but tell me about neutron stars."

Lewis said the best compliment ever paid him came from a teacher, who told her class after his presentation that they had just had a "conversation" with an astronomer.

"I like to get them involved," he said of the students. "It's about getting the kids interested in what you know. "

School presentations are only part of the job. Early on, Lewis started offering public astronomy observations on the first and third Fridays of each month. In 1988, the opposition of Mars became a big media event and drew attention to the public program.

"I guess I did it right because it kept going," Lewis said of the public sessions, which have continued to be a successful outreach tool.

"We have a few regulars who come to those first and third Fridays all the time and then we get new faces who have just heard about it," he said. The biggest draws are always solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, and comets. He also supervises extra-credit observations for UT astronomy students who are just learning about celestial objects.

As passionate as he is about sharing his love of the night sky, the Memphis native never had any plans to become an astronomer. The earliest indication of his future calling came one night at his cousin's house in Somerville, Tennessee. He says he was camping in the backyard one night when "all of a sudden here comes this little bright dot." He asked his uncle, a retired biology teacher, what it was. "That's Sputnik," he replied.

Lewis said it was decades later when the stars rekindled his interest.

"In 1979, for some reason or other, I picked up an astronomy magazine. I don't know why. There was something on the cover that caught my eye," he said. He thumbed through the telescope ads at the back and found himself enthralled.

"It's like I was afflicted, all of a sudden," he said. "I never had any aspirations to be an astronomer."

Over the next few months he picked up several other astronomy magazines and eventually decided to buy a telescope of his own.

"I bought an 8-inch reflecting telescope," he said with a laugh. I didn't know one end from the other."

Anxious to pursue his new hobby, he found his way to the Akima Planetarium at the Children's Museum at Chilhowee. He befriended planetarium director Charles Ferguson, who invited him to a star party, which became his introduction to the local astronomical scene.

"For the longest time, I knew voices only" he said, "I didn't know faces. You couldn't see the nose in front of your face, so I had this new group of friends that I only knew by voice. We were all amazed when we finally saw each other in broad daylight," he said.

With a group of like-minded friends and a part-time job at UT, Lewis' interest in astronomy continued to grow.

"It consumed me," he said.

Although he was working as a commercial photographer, astronomy eventually took over his professional life as his part-time job gave way to a full-time position. He has a full plate of school presentations, workshops for teachers, public viewing sessions, and the occasional trip to Kennedy Space Center. He also directs the Teachers Resource Distribution Center, a huge depository of slides, videos, and printed material on space education for teachers. To Lewis, however, the job is more fun than work.

"I have finally reached a point in my life that I can't imagine doing anything else," he said. "I'm afraid if I don't come to work, I'm going to miss something."

Visit The Teachers Resource Distribution Center at http://trdc.phys.utk.edu.


Back to Cross Sections, Fall 1999 issue.