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DONALD W. LYON

DONALD WILKINSON LYON Donald W. Lyon, son of the late James Herbert and Mary Hannah Smith Lyon, died December 12, 2009, at Forwood Manor, at the age of 93. He was born in Manchester, England and emigrated to the United States with his family in 1921. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1937 and received his PhD in inorganic chemistry from The Ohio State University in 1941. He worked for the DuPont Company for forty years in research, development, manufacturing and personnel administration in the Chemicals and Pigments Department. He retired in 1981. He remained active in the field of engineering education and in 1989 was chairman of the Cooperative Education Division of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and became a director of the organization in 1990. ASEE honored him for his work in cooperative education by awarding him the Borman and Freund awards. He was an active member of Grace United Methodist Church for sixty-eight years where he served as lay leader, chairman of the administrative council, a lay member of the Peninsula-Delaware Conference and as a board member of the preschool. The Methodist Church recognized him with the S. Lowan Pitts award for race relations and the Samuel McKay award for the Methodist Action Program. He was a delegate to the World Methodist Conferences in Nairobi (1986), Singapore (1991), Rio de Janeiro (1996) and Brighton, England (2001). He served as president of the Delaware Council on Crime and Justice and of the Brandywine Hundred Kiwanis Club. He was a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Association for Engineering Education, Sigma Xi, Phi Lambda Upsilon and a life member of Sigma Chi fraternity and Kiwanis International. He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife of sixty-seven years, Martha Crane Lyon; his sister, Winsome Davis; his son, David Winfield Lyon and his grandson, Nicholas Lyon. He is survived by his son Richard Lyon of Dallas, TX; daughter, Evelyn Lyon Brownlee of Wilmington; grandchildren, Erin Brownlee Dell (Kyle) of Greensboro, NC, Anne Marie Brownlee of Boston, MA, Robin Lyon of Kewadin, MI, and JJ Lyon (Dee) of Benzonia, MI; great-grandchildren, Samuel Dell, Phoebe Dell, Evan Lyon and Saharah Lyon. The family would like to thank the staff of Wilmington Hospital, Forwood Manor, and Compassionate Care Hospice for the excellent care they provided for Don in his final illness. A memorial service will be held at Grace United Methodist Church, 900 N. Washington Street in Wilmington, at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, December 18, 2009. Friends may call on the family at the church from 10-11 a.m. In lieu of flowers the family suggests memorial donations to Grace United Methodist Church, 900 N. Washington Street, Wilmington, DE, 19801
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