Buck and Malinda Lewis pose with Sharon Hudson, the Executive Director for the East Tennessee chapter.
By: Leah Taber
Buck Lewis has an intimate history with the American Red Cross of Tennessee: he is the former chair of the Mid-South Tennessee chapter advisory board and the current chair of the East Tennessee chapter advisory board. The Red Cross has honored him for his volunteer work, naming the East Tennessee chapter advisory board room for him and his wife Malinda in September 2025, and in December, the Mid-South Tennessee chapter named the iconic red staircase in Buck and Malinda’s honor.
Volunteers’ paths to connection with the American Red Cross are as varied as the patchwork of winding country roads that weave through the foothills and mountains that surround Knoxville, Tennessee.
For East Tennessee chapter volunteer and advisory board chair Buck Lewis, that connection was a phone call in fall 2005.
He was finishing his tenure as president of the Tennessee Bar Association in the weeks leading up to Hurricane Katrina.
“A lot of people were fleeing that area up north on the train to Memphis,” Buck recalled. That’s where Buck lived at the time. “There was a huge [Red Cross] shelter set up out near the Liberty Bowl, in that great big parking lot out there. I got a call and they asked, ‘Can you round up some lawyers to come in here and help these people? They’ve got problems with their leases, with their employment, with their cars, with their finances, and we’d like to have a [legal] clinic for them.’”
Buck Lewis speaks during the Stairway Dedication Ceremony at the Mid-South chapter in Memphis, TN.
Buck agreed, gathering a group of his colleagues to go to the shelter. The Red Cross soon called back, asking if he could find a lawyer to serve on the advisory board for the Mid-South Tennessee chapter. He didn’t have any luck with his firm, but he felt drawn to the Red Cross mission.
“I just said, ‘I love y’all’s work, so I’ll do it myself if y’all will have me.,’” Buck shares. He served on the advisory board for eight years, chairing the board for three of those years.
When he and his wife Malinda moved to Knoxville to be close to his position teaching a leadership course at the University of Tennessee Law School, Bucks’ connection to the Red Cross soon followed: the East Tennessee chapter asked him to serve on its advisory board, and they named him board chair in 2024.
The iconic red staircase in the Mid-South chapter is now the “Stairway of Hope” in appreciation of Buck and Malinda Lewis.
For Buck, community work runs in the family, like the blood coursing through his veins.
His mother Bettye, a stay-at-home mom, modeled what it meant to care for neighbors. “She was all the time involved in five or six different community organizations,” Buck recalled. She understood what need looked like: she grew up in severe poverty and was determined to use her experience to help those around her.
“Watching her do what she was doing, it had a profound influence on me,” Buck says.
Likewise, his father George served in the local Chamber of Commerce and the American Legion. “I have a friend who says his kids were 14 before they knew you could take a vacation without a name tag. And that was the way it was in the Lewis household as well,” Buck shares.
Buck carried the lessons of his childhood in Memphis forward to law school at the University of Tennessee and beyond, immersing himself in the legal community’s organizations: the Tennessee Bar Association and the Tennessee Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission, to name a few.
His passion for equal access to justice fueled his work to help launch the American Bar Association’s national pro bono website, FreeLegalAnswers.org. This free online legal clinic allows clients to ask questions, which are matched with volunteer attorneys who answer them. Volunteers have answered nearly half a million legal questions since the website launched 10 years ago.
In his role as an advisory board chair, Buck works with his board colleagues to connect the chapter director with area companies and organizations— “to get in the door,” whether it’s exploring a partnership, requesting a donation, or more broadly building community relationships. They’re also major forces in fundraising for the chapter.
When asked about how it feels to be honored for his volunteer work, Buck called out his philosophy of philanthropy: “It’s nice to be recognized, but ultimately your lasting joy comes from knowing that you spent your time … trying to help people that needed a hand … It just feeds my soul,” Buck says.
He sees that same caregiving value written in the Red Cross’s DNA, “because whether you’re helping a military [service member] get news from home, or you’re running into the teeth of a hurricane, or you’re going to help somebody see if their house is standing or where they’re going to rebuild after a fire, you’re not just coming in there and saying, ‘I have this little responsibility, and I’m going to do that and leave.’ No. That’s not the Red Cross way. Our volunteers come in and try to help the whole person and their whole family.”
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer the Red Cross at your local chapter, visit redcross.org/volunteer to learn more.
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