Funeral Today To Remember Victim of Car Crash

Ogden “Denny” Lewis Jr. ’01 probably touched more lives in his 22 years than many people do in far-longer lifetimes. Lewis died Nov. 14 from injuries he sustained in a car accident.

In the days since his death, friends from all over the world have come to the Lewis family’s home, showing how far his positive impact reached. All 12 of Lewis’ roommates from his years living in Leverett House are in New York to be with Lewis’ family.

“All these people kept flowing in—his high school Spanish teacher, his elementary school music teacher,” said Samantha A. Goldstein ’00, one of Lewis’ friends. “He knew so many people. He had so many friends.”

Funeral services will be held today at 2 p.m. at St. Thomas Church on 1 West 53rd Street at the corner of 5th Avenue in New York City. A reception will follow the service.

Lewis will be buried tomorrow in Quogue, New York, near one of his favorite childhood places on Long Island.

The Lewis family is providing buses to the burial ground from the corner of 79th Street and Park Avenue in New York. Buses will depart tomorrow at 9 a.m. and will return to the city around 3:30 p.m.

The family invites all students who knew their son to attend his funeral and burial.

Friends describe Lewis as good-natured and friendly, with many recalling his smile.

“Everyone remembers his smile—him walking through Leverett with that smile,” said Justin G. Muzinich ’00.

Lewis’ positive attitude toward life would often spread to the people around him, friends said.

“When he would lean back and relax, and smile, it would become infectious,” said friend and Fly Club president Angus R. Burgin ’02.

Lewis took an active role in campus social life. He was an active member of the Fly Club, where members recall him fondly.

“Denny was a model of how to always have a good time while acting with integrity at all times,” Burgin said.

Combining his skill and interest in photography with his social personality, Lewis involved himself in House life as a darkroom officer in the Leverett House Arts Society. He was also a photography editor for the Harvard Independent.

Since Lewis’ death, friends have looked to photographs to remember their friend.

“In every photograph of Denny that you see, he just comes alive out of the photograph,” Burgin said.

Lewis also volunteered his time in a number of campus programs. He served as a peer counselor and date rape counselor, and led a group of first-years on hiking trips through the Freshman Outdoor Program.

Friends point toward his enrollment in the Harvard Bartending Course offered through Harvard Student Agencies as an example of his fun-loving personality.

While Lewis enjoyed a good time with friends, he also loved a challenge, friends said.

“He had a playful side and he also had an adventurous side,” Muzinich said.

After graduating from Harvard last spring, Lewis went on a backpacking trip through Morocco.

“He wanted to see the world,” Muzinich said.

His adventurous side also brought him to South America for a hiking trip in Patagonia this month. But as he, Owen I. Breck ’01 and Robert A. D. Pike ’01 drove along a gravel mountain road near the town of Puerto Madryn, Argentina on Wednesday morning, their car flipped over, killing Lewis.

According to friends, Lewis was in the process of applying to postbaccalaureate pre-med programs, and was eager about becoming a doctor.

Before he came to Harvard in the fall of 1997, Lewis attended the Groton School, a prestigious boarding school in Groton, Mass., where he became a popular campus leader. He served as the senior prefect of his class, an office analogous to class president, and volunteered as a youth soccer coach. An avid singer, Lewis was also active in the school’s choir.

The website of the Groton School now bears a funeral announcement for its ‘97 graduate.

“Denny and his family are in our prayers,” the website says.

Friends say Lewis was a great listener and conversationalist—a person with whom people could easily talk.

“When you would pass him in the street, you would end up talking to him for such a long time,” said Goldstein, who attended both boarding school and college with Lewis. “He would be genuinely interested in what you were saying.”

Even in his death, Lewis will continue to be an example to those who admired him while he was alive, Burgin said.

“Sometimes, when you’re remembering someone who is gone, there’s a tendency to shut out the bad moments, or the times when things weren’t quite right,” he said. ”When I think about Denny, though, there aren’t any moments like that—there’s nothing I have to exclude. He was always kind, always thoughtful, always fun to be around. I learned a lot from his example, and will continue to learn from my memories of him as time passes.”