BY ELISE KNABLE ’09 AND AMANDA DOWNES ’06

FROM 1947 TO 1982 the halls of Wes­ley Junior Col­lege were graced by a man named Lewis Wells. More than just a pro­fes­sor of Eng­lish and dra­matic arts, Wells was a leg­end. He left an indeli­ble mark on Wes­ley Col­lege his­tory, mold­ing count­less stu­dents as he sought to spread a love of the arts, lit­er­a­ture, reli­gion and life to all he encoun­tered. The Wells The­atre on cam­pus is a last­ing memo­r­ial and reminder of his influ­ence. Close to 30 years after his retire­ment and since his pass­ing in 1994, Wells has remained a name that cre­ates a bond between a gen­er­a­tion of young men and women who stud­ied at Wes­ley. Alumni span­ning five decades rem­i­nisce about the inspi­ra­tional pro­fes­sor whom they will never for­get, remem­ber­ing him as a per­son who sig­nif­i­cantly shaped their life and the lives of many oth­ers at the insti­tu­tion and beyond.

After receiv­ing his bachelor’s from Clar­ion State Teach­ers Col­lege, a master’s from Uni­ver­sity of Pitts­burgh, and com­plet­ing grad­u­ate study at Duke, Uni­ver­sity of New Hamp­shire and Uni­ver­sity of Maine, Wells began his career at Wes­ley in 1946. Teach­ing Eng­lish, pub­lic speak­ing and drama, as well as advis­ing the extracur­ric­u­lar drama pro­gram known as Wes­ley Play­ers, his abil­ity to con­nect with stu­dents imme­di­ately took hold.

“He would always reach out to peo­ple and bring the spirit out in us; his enthu­si­asm was con­ta­gious,” said Glo­ria James ’73. Whether it was in the class­room, at the­ater prac­tice or dur­ing infa­mous din­ners hosted at his home, Wells was equip­ping his stu­dents with valu­able lessons and skills that would enhance their future lives. James vividly recalls him help­ing stu­dents learn to exe­cute lines cor­rectly in order to get a mes­sage across to the audi­ence. She attrib­utes her suc­cess as a cre­ative radio announcer to his mes­sage about the deliv­ery of the words and how that deliv­ery would impact others.

Affec­tion­ately known as Uncle Lewi, Wells had a spe­cial knack for bring­ing out the best in his stu­dents, aca­d­e­m­i­cally and emo­tion­ally. “Mr. Wells had a gift for find­ing ‘strays’ and help­ing them find pur­pose. He lit­er­ally changed my life,” said Ed Doherty ’76. When Doherty took Eng­lish 101 with Wells, he was expect­ing to sit back and be mis­er­able for the semes­ter while hope­fully pulling a pass­ing grade. There was much more in store for him, how­ever, thanks to Uncle Lewi’s immea­sur­able influence.

Doherty was a fresh­man in need of direc­tion and “a seri­ous atti­tude adjust­ment,” accord­ing to his self-description. “One day Mr. Wells asked me to stay after class and he said, ‘Fol­low me.’ He led me across the hall to the Lit­tle The­atre with­out any addi­tional com­ment. Silently, we toured the run-down and clut­tered facil­ity. He finally asked me, ‘What do you see?’ I said, ‘A mess.’ That day, I began a major cleanout of old sets, props and cos­tumes in the base­ment. I replaced light­ing, cleaned dress­ing rooms and made gen­eral repairs. It took me weeks, and any free time I had, but I finally cleaned and unclut­tered the Lit­tle The­atre.” Unbe­knownst to Wells, his com­ment that he “needed some­one to show it [the the­atre] some love” and the expe­ri­ence that ensued re-ignited Doherty’s inter­est in the­ater from high school. And more impor­tantly, it was an eye-opening and matur­ing moment for the young man. “That began a renais­sance for the Lit­tle The­atre and a new begin­ning for me,” he said.

“I think some stu­dents who went to Wes­ley needed to be encouraged…he [Wells] toned me down. I cer­tainly was not wild, but I didn’t lack self-confidence,” Ralph “Arky” Owen ’51 explained. Owen remem­bers how Wells’ nur­tur­ing but firm nature helped many stu­dents to mature and reach their full poten­tial. “He was unques­tion­ably the most liked pro­fes­sor in the school.”

For­mer stu­dents fre­quently remark on Wells’ unique abil­ity to keep their inter­est in any sub­ject mat­ter, even in an 8 a.m. class. More than just teach­ing the course mate­r­ial, he took a sin­cere inter­est in the per­sonal devel­op­ment of his stu­dents. For Walt Reimann ’50, enrolling in Wells’ pub­lic speak­ing class helped him to over­come a stut­ter­ing prob­lem. “My abil­ity to com­mu­ni­cate smoothly was inter­rupted with pauses. It was by chance that I got there,” he explained. The car­ing pro­fes­sor worked with him on his speech, instill­ing in him the self-assurance that he could con­quer his chal­lenge. “I was able to gain a lot of con­fi­dence for myself and express myself in my envi­ron­ment. As a result I went on to Get­tys­burg Col­lege, got an engi­neer­ing degree at Uni­ver­sity of Hart­ford and a master’s in busi­ness at Drexel. I’m not sure if I would have gone on for more school­ing and work if I hadn’t worked with him…I wish there were more teach­ers like him.”

Wells pro­foundly influ­enced the cul­ture at Wes­ley Junior Col­lege as well as the indi­vid­ual lives of count­less stu­dents whose cre­ativ­ity, con­fi­dence and love of the arts blos­somed under his tute­lage. Many alumni cite Uncle Lewi as their inspi­ra­tion for get­ting involved with the arts. For some young men and women, their path to Wes­ley and into one of Wells’ classes pro­vided a fate­ful first encounter with the the­ater. Bill Bax­ter ’68 recalls how Wells helped him to see that par­tic­i­pat­ing in an extra-curricular activ­ity like drama “can be edu­ca­tional, fun and enhance the rest of the col­lege expe­ri­ence.” He added, “I remem­ber him always sit­ting part­way back in the audi­ence chairs, bark­ing direc­tions to the stage as if he was actu­ally angry or dis­ap­pointed; find­ing later that he was hav­ing the time of his life. And you know what, so were we.”

Even for those who already had an inter­est in the arts, the oppor­tu­nity to study under Wells pro­pelled them in their jour­ney of artis­tic expres­sion and self-discovery. “Some of my fond­est mem­o­ries include Mr. Wells, the the­ater and the Wes­ley Play­ers,” expressed Jane (Alder­fer) Rahn ’65. She describes one sig­nif­i­cant moment as “walk­ing into his class­room and hav­ing him hold up the palm of his hand and say ‘All the world’s a stage.’ That stuck.”

Through­out his time on cam­pus, inter­est in the Wes­ley Play­ers soared like it never had before. Hun­dreds of stu­dents found their niche at Wes­ley by becom­ing a Wes­ley Player and work­ing with the tal­ented Uncle Lewi. “He changed my life,” said Chris (Reich) Flem­ing ’62. “I had always wanted to be an actress, but at my high school they would never cast me in a role. I audi­tioned for him and he cast me right away.” She recalls how he demon­strated sin­cere inter­est in his stu­dents’ well­be­ing, always lis­ten­ing and being there for them. “If you got taken under his wing, you just felt so cared for and safe.”

Another Wes­ley Player, Lynn Schmid Knable ’67, explained, “Uncle Lewi was our ‘Mr. Chips.’ His ded­i­ca­tion to his beloved stu­dents was unex­celled. He helped us to believe in our­selves because he first believed in us. That’s some­thing I think each of us whose life he touched took away with us and hope­fully carry across all that we do…his integrity and ser­vice. His expec­ta­tions were high, but he some­how made it fun to reach the bar he raised.”

Pam Webster-Ward ’73, who had artis­tic tal­ents in dance as opposed to drama, also attests to Wells’ sense of inclu­sive­ness among the Wes­ley com­mu­nity. Remem­ber­ing how he invited her to work on chore­og­ra­phy for one of his pro­duc­tions which required danc­ing, she said of Wells, “I think one of his most impor­tant assets was the will­ing­ness to include every­one who wanted to be involved, and an unerr­ing instinct to fig­ure out where people’s gifts and tal­ents would fit in with what he was doing.” She also recalls that he wouldn’t let her get down when she sprained her ankle dur­ing one of the per­for­mances and felt that she ruined the show. Instead he had said to her, “Don’t take your­self too seri­ously my dear, but always take your work seri­ously.” Webster-Ward expressed, “I never for­got that and real­ized that the say­ing could be applied to many, many areas of life, not just the­ater. He was a lovely, lovely man.”

Under Wells’ direc­tion, the artis­tic scene on cam­pus, and the Wes­ley Play­ers in par­tic­u­lar, reached new heights. Wells’ rep­u­ta­tion for the­atri­cal pro­duc­tions drew in audi­ence mem­bers from the tri-state area and attracted the atten­tion of the­ater crit­ics from nearby cities. At the same time, Wells helped estab­lish a rep­utable pres­ence for Wes­ley Junior Col­lege among peers in the artis­tic and the aca­d­e­mic world. For­mer col­league and cur­rent Pro­fes­sor of Art Lon Fluman explained, “Part of the rea­son I was brought to Wes­ley Col­lege was because of Pro­fes­sor Wells. Pro­fes­sor Wells and Pro­fes­sor Hughes were two of the peo­ple who made Wes­ley Col­lege the num­ber one two-year col­lege in the U.S.”

Wells became a trusted advi­sor and men­tor to many Wes­ley stu­dents over the years. He was the type of pro­fes­sor who not only wanted his stu­dents to learn, but had a gen­uine inter­est in see­ing them suc­ceed in every aspect of life. Al Stal­lone ’53 had his first meet­ing with Uncle Lewi at his high school’s col­lege night. Although Stal­lone orig­i­nally planned on going to a dif­fer­ent col­lege, unfore­seen obsta­cles pre­vented him from tak­ing that path and Wells opened another door for him at Wes­ley, where he could work his way through school with a job serv­ing tables in the din­ing hall.

Years later, Wells was instru­men­tal in another piv­otal moment in his life. After grad­u­at­ing and finally decid­ing what he wanted to do in his future, Stal­lone was inter­viewed by the Penn­syl­va­nia Bar Asso­ci­a­tion. Hav­ing main­tained a close rela­tion­ship with his for­mer pro­fes­sor, he listed him as a ref­er­ence. “Uncle Lewi got a let­ter in Delaware ask­ing whether or not he would rec­om­mend me. When I got to the meet­ing for the inter­view, who was sit­ting there but Uncle Lewi. He came per­son­ally. He sat in the first row at the court­room when I was sworn in as a judge 15 years later,” Stal­lone said. “That was Uncle Lewi.”

Stal­lone was one of many indi­vid­u­als who wit­nessed first­hand Wells’ incred­i­ble influ­ence at both the Col­lege and the Wes­ley United Methodist Church (UMC) in Dover. Clearly demon­strat­ing his faith and devo­tion, Wells served as a lay preacher, a Chris­t­ian edu­ca­tion teacher and a choir mem­ber in the local church. As a play­wright, he also cre­ated many reli­gious and his­tor­i­cal pro­duc­tions, even after his retire­ment. These included “The Valiant Men Walk Unafraid,” which depicts the found­ing of Barratt’s Chapel in Fred­er­ica, Del., “The Road Taken,” a play com­mis­sioned by the Penin­sula Annual Con­fer­ence for the Methodist bicen­ten­nial cel­e­bra­tion, “We Are One,” which was pre­sented in 1965 and high­lighted the merg­ing of the Delaware and Penin­sula con­fer­ences, and “Unto This Gen­er­a­tion” for Wes­ley UMC’s 200th anniver­sary. Reli­gion was yet another sphere where Wells’ teach­ings and beliefs made a strong impres­sion on his stu­dents. Stal­lone pointed out that Uncle Lewi taught a lot of peo­ple who went on to pur­sue careers in the Methodist min­istry, and as one for­mer stu­dent who strongly con­sid­ered that path, he can per­son­ally attest to his professor’s influence.

Oppor­tu­ni­ties to inter­act with beloved Uncle Lewi were not just lim­ited to the class­room, church or stage. He often invited stu­dents to his house for Sun­day din­ner, and many grad­u­ates still have fond mem­o­ries of these spe­cial gath­er­ings. “His Christ­mas get-togethers and spring galas in the par­lor of his Governor’s Avenue home were renowned. We min­gled with the fac­ulty. We were gath­ered as his fam­ily. Indeed, his door was always open to any stu­dent who needed a wise, kind friend,” Knable explained.

Undoubt­edly, Wells made a last­ing impres­sion on the Wes­ley Col­lege fam­ily as a whole. Among his con­tri­bu­tions to the insti­tu­tion, he authored plays for both the 75th and 100th anniver­sary of Wes­ley Col­lege. Upon retir­ing in 1982, he received the Wes­ley Award for ser­vice to human­ity. He con­tin­ued his play writ­ing and work with the Methodist church that he had begun when first arriv­ing at the College.

At his retire­ment din­ner, Wells said farewell to over 200 alumni and friends who attended the event in his honor. In an arti­cle writ­ten about the event by Owen, it is noted that “the theme for the evening was ‘One Lit­tle Can­dle’ which was a sym­bolic rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the con­fi­dence instilled in so many of his stu­dents by the hon­ored guest.”

In 1986 the Lewis Wells Endowed Schol­ar­ship Fund was estab­lished as a means for stu­dents to con­tinue their edu­ca­tion at Wes­ley. Based on con­tri­bu­tions from friends and alumni of the Col­lege, the schol­ar­ship stands as a trib­ute to the legacy of Wells and all that he gave to his stu­dents and the greater community.

To fur­ther honor his ded­i­cated ser­vice, the Wes­ley Col­lege Alumni Asso­ci­a­tion inducted him into the Alumni Hall of Fame as an hon­orary mem­ber on May 2, 1987. At the cer­e­mony, Wells was pre­sented with an “Oscar” inscribed with a trib­ute to his work at the Col­lege. Hold­ing true to the mem­o­ries of many, he then “con­ducted class for some of his for­mer stu­dents in Wells The­atre after the induc­tion cer­e­monies,” said Knable. On April 27, 1976 the Lit­tle The­atre in Slay­baugh Hall was renamed and ded­i­cated in his honor.

Although Wells has passed on from this world, his ideals of edu­ca­tion, faith and pas­sion for the arts are car­ried on through the for­mer stu­dents whose lives have been enriched by his lessons and guid­ance. Numer­ous alumni have fol­lowed his exam­ples by pur­su­ing work in the arts, edu­ca­tion or in the church. And regard­less of their indi­vid­ual paths, grad­u­ates of Wes­ley Junior Col­lege who had the priv­i­lege to know and form a bond with the pro­fes­sor have one thing in com­mon: they attribute a part of who they are today and what they have achieved to Uncle Lewi.

As so many alumni have shared, Wells wanted more for his stu­dents than just an edu­ca­tion. He wanted them to feel inspired by life, believe in them­selves and most of all, find the human­ity that dri­ves us to become what we dream to be. Some alumni like to believe that he still sits in the bal­cony of Wells The­atre wait­ing for the next play to begin. And while it is arguable that the arts at Wes­ley have never been the same since Wells’ era, his spirit is a last­ing inspi­ra­tion on cam­pus and among all whose lives he touched. For beloved pro­fes­sor Lewis Wells and all who con­tinue to live their lives with him in mind, “The play’s the thing.”