Ivey Foreman Lewis was raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was one of five children of an established doctor. Lewis's father attended the University of Virginia before settling in North Carolina. Ivey attended the University of North Carolina and received his bachelor's and master's degrees in biology in 1902 and 1903 respectively. Lewis went on to Johns Hopkins University to study with a famed cellular anatomist. In 1908 he completed his Ph.D. in biology with a concentration in botany. He taught at Randolph-Macon College for four years and moved to the University of Wisconsin in 1913. Robert E. Blackwell, president of Randolph-Macon College said; "He is a man of strong religious character, and was a leader in the Episcopal Church while here." Lewis then occupied the Smithsonian Table at the Stazione Zoologica, a very prestigious research post in Naples, Italy. He was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in in 1914. He became Professor of Biology at the University of Virginia in September of 1915. The school allowed him to focus on research. He was a Professor and administrator at the University of Virginia for almost forty years. President Edwin Anderson Alderman and Ivey Lewis endeavored to modernize the University of Virginia while simultaneously conserving its distinctly southern heritage. During Lewis's tenure, the biology department at the University of Virginia consistently produced more majors than virtually any other department in the college of arts and sciences. He influenced educational and health policy in the state for much of the twentieth century. Lewis's teaching directly affected generations of socially and politically prominent Virginians. Lewis's impact was national in scope, although strongest in the south. He was an influential figure in Virginia education, rising to become the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He travelled throughout the state speaking to educators. For Lewis, science was a natural extension of God's goodwill toward humanity. Science and religion were complimentary, not antagonistic, modes of thought. He believed in upright living and service to one's community. With his scientific knowledge of the laws of life he brought to his duties a broad and strong capacity to deal with human problems present in the lives of students. Ivey Lewis was a man who thought of himself as essentially southern and quintessentially modern. His students considered him a father figure, a fine teacher, and an authority on matters biological and social.