William Mather Lewis (March 24, 1878 – November 11, 1945) was an American teacher, university president, local politician, and a state and national government official.

[9][10] Lewis was briefly principal of Whipple Academy, Jacksonville (a preparatory school of Illinois College),[6] before returning to Lake Forest to be head of the department of oratory and debate at Lake Forest Academy for three years.

[11] Lewis was director of the savings division of the United States Treasury Department and chief of educational service for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from 1921 to 1923.

[9][1] Because of his earlier work during World War I, Lewis was appointed by Governor Arthur James as the director of the Pennsylvania Selective Service System (organising "the draft"), which he did without pay from September 1940 until he stepped down in November 1941 since it detracted from his duties as president of Lafayette College.

[20] They spent more than a year travelling and studying in Europe, including England and Berlin, from June 1913 to October 1914.