Northwestern administrators named the new University Police chief Wednesday, culminating months of searching for a successor to retiring Chief Saul Chafin.

Bruce A. Lewis, 41, will take over the post July 1, said Eugene Sunshine, NU’s senior vice president for business and finance. Lewis is the current chief of police at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“This opportunity at Northwestern presents not only an opportunity for me but for my family as well,” Lewis said. “Northwestern is an elite institution, and I am interested in staying in higher education.”

Sunshine had nothing but praise for Lewis, whom he called a “terrific choice.”

“We’ve got somebody with really enormous skills and enormous success with being a police chief at a major university,” Sunshine said. “He brings a wealth of experience, which will be very helpful.”

Chafin said he knows Lewis personally and was pleased with his successor’s appointment.

“We are fortunate to have found a fine replacement,” Chafin said. “He certainly came through with flying colors as a candidate.”

Lewis has headed UIC’s police force since 1998. He also has been director of university police at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and chief of police and director of parking services at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees and has completed several executive education programs, including one at NU’s Center for Public Safety.

Lewis’ appointment makes him the second consecutive black UP chief. Sunshine said attracting minority and female applicants was a priority for the university.

Sunshine said the university received 70 to 80 applications for the job. A selection advisory committee composed of students, faculty and staff from the Chicago and Evanston campuses narrowed the field to about 10 candidates who were interviewed.

Three or four of these candidates were brought back to meet another committee, which included William Banis, vice president for student affairs, Sunshine said. Once the field was narrowed to two, Sunshine made the final decision.

Sunshine said it was important to find someone who worked well with the community and the police force. He said the university wanted its selection to be a good leader, manager, teacher and listener.

“(Lewis) emerged overall as the very best of what was a very strong pool,” Sunshine said.

Lewis said the interviewing process was “very rigorous.”

“They asked very pertinent questions,” he said.

Chafin’s retirement culminates about seven years at NU and more than 40 years working in law enforcement. After beginning his police career in 1961 in Hartford, Conn., Chafin worked in the departments at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Harvard University and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

He said he will miss NU but that the time is right to leave.

“It’s time to hang it up,” Chafin said. “This has been my finest hour — my seven-year hour.

“I can retire, and we have a young star who can come in and fill the void.”

The university will miss Chafin, Sunshine said. “He’s an institution — you don’t replace him.”