After his stint in Washington, Lewis served as London Bureau Chief for the Times from 1964-1969, and then as an op-ed columnist until his retirement in 2001. His twice-weekly column, titled “Abroad at Home/At Home Abroad,” was a staple among Democratic readers.
“At a liberal moment in American history, he was one of the defining liberal voices,” Lemann said.
Lewis married Massachusetts lawyer Margaret Marshall in 1984. Marshall, who was his second wife, went on to become the chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court.
Though he moved back to Boston while he was a columnist, Lewis co-taught a graduate course on the First Amendment and the Supreme Court at Columbia for 23 years.
Vincent Blasi, a Columbia Law Professor who co-taught the First Amendment Course, called Lewis an “original thinker” in the field, with an unusual teaching ability.
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“He was striking in how much respect he had for the thought processes of other people. He never, with students or with me, played the role of the famous person or the original thinker,” Blasi said.
Paul Sack ’48, a former Crimson business editor who was friends with Lewis for more than 70 years, said he was a natural journalist and a charismatic presence throughout his life.
“Tony was a wonderful person and people were willing to work very hard to do things for him, just because of some sheer magnetism of his personality,” Sack said.
—Staff writer Nicholas P. Fandos can be reached at nicholasfandos@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @npfandos.
This article has been revised to reflect the following corrections:
CORRECTIONS: March 28, 2013
A Facebook post and an email newsletter circulating this article incorrectly stated the class year of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former Crimson managing editor J. Anthony Lewis '48, who died on Monday at the age of 85. In addition, an earlier version of the photo credits of the images accompanying the story incorrectly stated that the photos were filed in the Harvard University Archives as HUD 3304. In fact, the images, from top to bottom, were categorized as HUPSF Crimson 23 and HUPSF Crimson 22, respectively.