profile Barbara Lewis “The way I see it, dumplin’,” declared Barbara Lewis from the cozy inner sanctum of Town Center City Club, “Good sense and gumption can overcome almost anything.” Lewis, who turns 85 in June, is president of the private business club and has long had her finger on the pulse of the area’s economic health. “I’ve been here since it was a frontier town; when all this was just two lanes to the ocean and, my goodness, we didn’t even have a city,” she said, in reference to the incorporation of Virginia Beach in 1963. “If somebody had asked me then if the day would come when there would be high-rises and hotels, arts and entertainment, top schools, dining and shopping, first-rate hospitals and city amenities, well, I might have laughed, but I would’ve said, ‘Yes.’” Lewis is a believer and always has been. She arrived from Mobile, AL as a fresh-faced bride in 1956, “worried mostly what I was going to wear to meet my in-laws for the first time,” and never looked back. Her husband, Bill Lewis, worked for the railroad, and they bought their first house in Aragona Village, an early subdivision. “You had to walk to the end of the street to use a telephone,” she said. “My very first fundraiser in the area was to help raise money for the library at Louise Luxford Elementary.” Business-savvy and civic-minded, Lewis handled public relations for Princess Anne Business College and Montgomery Ward department store, briefly owned a cosmetics shop and eventually purchased and ran Charm Associates for 30 years. The mother of two sons and a widow by age 42, she persevered, forging connections with area businesses and supporting community endeavors. She founded and ran Outstanding Professional Women of Hampton Roads for 24 years and fundraised for nonprofits Lynnhaven River NOW 2007 and Hope House Foundation, among others. Her experiences convinced her of the need for a private business club where members could socialize, network and contribute to the community. “We had wonderful golf clubs and country clubs, but there wasn’t a club specifically for business, and for many years I wanted to change that,” she said. Her dream became a reality in 2004, courtesy of developer Dan Hoffler’s faith in her sales ability and local businesses’ faith in Lewis. “Mr. Hoffler agreed to lease me space in the first tower at Town Center if I had 200 members,” she recalled. “So, I had to find 200 people willing to write me substantial checks with only my word to go on.” It is that small town loyalty, business-with-a-handshake ethic that Lewis credits with successful city growth. “The heart of this city is still about the relationships between people and their efforts to create a wonderful place to live and work,” she said. “You make friends, keep your word and stand upon your reputation.” By way of example, Lewis pointed to the power of personality in her friends, Pearl Smith and Nancy Creech. As president of the Central Business District Association, now retired, Smith diligently worked with community and city politics to pave the way for Town Center development. Similarly, longtime Neptune Festival president and CEO, Creech has grown the oceanfront festival into one of the biggest events on the East Coast. “Town Center and Neptune Festival are now both economic engines for
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feb-apr 2021 | boulevard
[ by irene bowers ]
“The heart of this city is still about the relationships between people and their efforts to create a wonderful place to live and work.”
Barbara Lewis teaching a class at Princess Anne Business College in the late 1960s
