Featured Alumnus: Steve Lewis '73 | Avon Old Farms News | About Us | Avon Old Farms

This past Veterans Day contained all the components that have become tradition here at Avon—from the Morning Meeting slideshow that recognized the service of students’ loved ones to the all-school 5k race in the afternoon. It also included a few new, meaningful moments thanks largely to one thoughtful alumnus.

Steve Lewis ’73 has dedicated most of his free time in the last several years to raising awareness of veteran-led causes, combatting the issue of veteran suicide rates, and sharing the stories of those who served. This year, he brought his advocacy to his high school. As has become tradition at Avon, a large portion of the program centered on alumnus Captain Andrew M. Pedersen-Keel '02, US Army Special Forces, who was killed in action in 2013 while serving in Afghanistan. To honor Pedersen-Keel, Lewis created a shadowbox compiling a military career’s worth of uniforms and medals into a memorial. He also contracted an artist to produce a drawn portrait of Pedersen-Keel. Both were presented to Pedersen-Keel’s mother on the Susan Casey Brown Auditorium stage. Lewis also printed prayer cards to pass out to students as they entered.

Lewis spent the rest of the day chatting with the veteran guests on campus and answering any student questions about his work and the causes behind it. “This is a way for me to give back to my school after the people here did so much for me when I was 15. This was a perfect opportunity to support both my school and veterans.”

His visit to Avon Old Farms on Veterans Day was the latest event in the life of Lewis, which he describes as “a series of one thing leading to another.” This series of events began during the peak of the 1950’s baby boom, which meant the class sizes in his West Hartford public schools were overwhelmingly large. “My mom and dad wanted me to go to a school where I would get more personal instruction,” Lewis shares.

They began looking at local boarding schools and Avon stood out among the rest. It took one campus tour in June to convince Lewis. “Even when the school was empty, I knew it was the place I wanted to go. There was just something special about it.” He was among the first day students to ever be admitted to the school, and was also one of the first classes in the Trautman era, when George Trautman H’98, P’75, ’81, ’82, GP’03 served as headmaster.

His first few months at Avon were a bit more eventful than anyone would have liked. A shootout between bank robbers and police unfolded near the school athletic fields, followed closely by the collapse of the old gym roof a few weeks later. The police ultimately got their man, the gym was rebuilt better than ever, and all the while Lewis never doubted his decision to attend Avon. In fact, these events give him a feeling of pride. “George Trautman was able to bring the school through all of that. I’m proud to be a part of the Class of ’73. Since then, the school has only gotten better.”

While at Avon, Lewis was hyper focused on athletics. A three-sport varsity athlete, he played football, wrestling, and was part of the first varsity lacrosse team to be coached by AOF Athletics Hall of Famer Henry “Skip” Flanagan H'18, GP'16, '20. “That team, we were basically a bunch of football guys with lacrosse sticks, but Skip made us a real force,” Lewis says. “He was one of the best coaches I ever had.”

In his athletic and character development, Lewis was thriving. Meanwhile, academics were a bit more of a challenge. “Getting accustomed to the long days and nights of study took some time. I had to work very hard. Things did not come easy academically, but Avon gives you the tools and the mentality to overcome it.” Lewis did more than just overcome classroom struggles. Academic instruction became his career interest. His first step after graduating from Avon was to attend the University of Michigan where he studied education with the goal of being a teacher and football coach.

He did his student-teaching at a middle school in Ann Arbor, Mich., and then took a full-time position at a day school outside of New York City where he taught English and social studies. In 1982, he made a temporary career switch and took an insurance job in the city. He also began pursuing a professional cycling career, competing in USA Cycling Federation events around the country.

It was around this time that a few tragic and pivotal moments occurred in Lewis’s life. He personally witnessed a suicide only to have a friend commit suicide as well a very short time later. “I did everything to try to help him.” As a result of these events, Lewis decided to leave New York and move back to West Hartford.

Upon his return, Lewis began working at a cycling shop while continuing to race before going back into the insurance industry, this time taking a job at Travelers. While he did meet his wife at this job, it wasn’t something he could see himself doing for very long. “I wasn’t meant to work in a cube.” So, he returned to education. He worked as a substitute teacher, then a paraprofessional, all while continuing to coach football.

Through his role as a football coach, Lewis had his next transformative experience. He was coaching at New Britain High School when 9/11 happened. It occurred only a few months after two of his players had enlisted. Over the next few months, he watched as more of the kids he had mentored answered the call to serve. “Other guys I had coached enlisted and they weren’t the same when they returned from duty,” Lewis says.

Suddenly, the issues veterans face became a primary concern of his, especially when he began to learn more about veteran suicide rates. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, there are just under 18 veteran suicides every day in this country. “Because I had personal experience with suicide, I felt compelled to get more involved.”

Lewis decided he would become an advocate. He was brainstorming ways that he could help raise awareness for his cause, and was inspired by one man’s solo paddleboarding journey from Florida to New York. He decided he would take a journey himself—a walk from the Army & Navy Club in Manchester, Conn., to a pub in Providence, R.I., owned by a 9/11 first responder. The 70+ mile walk took just over three days and raised money for Comfort Farms, an organization that provides holistic therapy and crisis services for veterans in need. 

From there, much like the rest of Lewis’s life, one thing led to another. “That one event generated so many connections.” The next year, in 2017, he joined a similar effort called “The Walk of Life,” where a group of veterans walked from southern California to Washington D.C. Lewis even used his football connections to create the perfect conclusion of this effort. The group were the guests of honor at an NFL game. They all received box seats and were brought onto the field at halftime to be recognized by the crowd. This group of vets then joined Lewis a few months later when he embarked on his second annual “Comfort Walk.”

While injuries have prevented Lewis from making the Comfort Walk every year, he does do a shorter walk every day, and every day he dons different attire to commemorate a specific individual service member who died on that given day. He helps out with other veteran charity work taking place around the state whenever he can.

One of these efforts perfectly combined his passion for youth football and veteran causes. Joe Kapacziewski played football at Bristol Eastern High School, who played against the Lewis-led New Britain team every year. Kapacziewski enlisted in the army and served multiple tours, losing a leg in the process. In 2023, he committed suicide at only 40 years old. When Bristol Eastern dedicated an area of the school to be named after him, Lewis wanted to make sure there was something physical that current students could look at and think of Kapacziewski. So, he made his first shadowbox. “I realized I had to do the same thing for Pedersen-Keel.” This past Veterans Day, that mission was completed.

Now, Lewis is working on a book that tells the story of the soldiers who participated in the Walk of Life. He balances still working as a paraprofessional with traveling to conduct research for this book. He also manages to find time to visit the Old Farm every now and then. “I love coming back. This school helped me so much. It’s here that I learned to never quit.”

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