John H. Lewis - Council Place 1

John H. Lewis was elected to the City Council in May 2003 and currently serving in his fourth term. He previously served our city on the Planning & Zoning Commission, Parks & Recreation Board, Cultural and Education Ad Hoc Committee, Citizen's Committee for the Crime Control District Election and Census 2000 Committee.

He was born in Aurora, Illinois and first came to Texas in 1976 while employed with Georgia Pacific Corporation. He returned to Texas in 1984, after spending the last three of thirteen years with G-P in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and started his own business, Paragon Furniture, Inc. He graduated from the University of Texas - Arlington, earning a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting. Semi-retired since he sold Paragon Furniture in 1997, John instructs computer related courses part time for the Continuing Education Department at Tarrant County College, NE Campus.

He and his wife, Mary, are members of St. John the Apostle Church in North Richland Hills. Other current memberships include the Northeast Richland Lions Club, Northeast Tarrant Chamber of Commerce, Northeast Leadership Forum, Rolling Hills Country Club, Classic Car Club of America, Packard Automobile Classics, Inc. and Mercedes Car Club of America.

John currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Northeast Richland Lions Club, and serves on the Texas Municipal Retirement System Advisory Committee on Retirement Matters.

John has served as a volunteer for SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) since 2005 and was appointed the Director of the North Texas District of SCORE in August of 2008. He oversees more than 150 SCORE Volunteers who mentor Small Businesses across North Texas. He received a White House Appointment to the SBA’s (U. S. Small Business Administration) National Advisory Council in June 2006 and served on their Executive Committee thru October of 2009.

Past service to our community also includes serving on the Boards of the Northeast Tarrant Chamber of Commerce, Quad Cities Foundation, Northeast YMCA, ARTSNET, Thornbridge Homeowners Association and the North Texas Region of the Classic Car Club of America.