LIFE@Lynchburg | The Peddler & the Pedagogue

Name: LIFE@Lynchburg | The Peddler & the Pedagogue
Start: 2025-09-24T10:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-09-24T12:00:00-04:00
Location: Sydnor Performance Hall

Schedule

Wed Sep 24 2025 at 10:00 am to 12:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Sydnor Performance Hall | Lynchburg, VA

Presented by Marc Schewel.
This session is about the partnership between Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald and the resulting success of Sears-Roebuck. That success made Rosenwald a wealthy man who used his wealth to support a variety of philanthropic causes. He partnered with educator Booker T. Washington to address the stark racial inequality in educational opportunities, financing the building of thousands of schools, primarily in the South. Of the 382 Rosenwald schools built in Virginia, Mr. Schewel will focus on two schools in our area and on ongoing efforts to restore and repurpose those buildings.
Speaker Biography:
Marc Schewel is a native of Lynchburg who graduated from E.C. Glass High School and Washington and Lee University. Except for a brief teaching tenure at Appomattox High School, he has worked his adult life at Schewel Furniture Company, where he is currently president. Schewel Furniture Company, a retail furniture chain with 50 stores in Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia, celebrated its 125th Anniversary in 2022.
He is/has been involved in numerous community service activities, including serving with the Lynchburg Jewish Community Council, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Virginia, United Way of Central Virginia, New Vistas School, the YMCA, the National Conference for Community and Justice, the Salvation Army Advisory Board, the Family Alliance, Greater Lynchburg Habitat for Humanity, Virginia Legal Aid Society and the Lynchburg Housing and Redevelopment Authority. . He is also past President of the National Home Furnishings Association.
Schewel is a recipient of the John Willis Award of Merit, the NCCJ Humanitarian Award, the Mayor’s Award of Excellence, the Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce, George Taylor Stewart Award, the Lynchburg Bar Association Liberty Bell Award, and the Paul Harris Fellow Award.