Posted by ****** on January 28, 2003:

WILLIAM M. LYON, 74 Aviation consultant; Air Force second lieutenant; engineer SANDWICH. William M. Lyon, 74, an aviation consultant and former director of the Air Traffic Control Systems for the Air Force, died Sunday at the Hospice House in Barnstable after a long illness with cancer. He was the husband of Sallie (Grossman) Lyon and Gwyneth Houghton Lyon , who died in 1983. Born and raised in Punxsutawney, Pa., Mr. Lyon was appointed to the United States Militay Academy, West Point, N.Y. in 1944. He graduated from West Point in 1948 with a degree in engineering and was commissioned as a second lieutennant in the Air Force. He was later assigned to the Air Force Institute of Technology, where he completed a graduate program in aeronautical engineering. During the Korean War, he was assigned to a B-29 squadron in Japan as an aircraft maintenance officer. His squadron flew combat sorties over North Korea on a near-daily basis for the next two years for which Mr. Lyon was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. After his service in the Korean War, Mr. Lyon was an Air Force ROTC instructor at Ohio State University and then served as project officer at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. He resigned from active duty with the Air Force in 1960 with the rank of major. He remained with the Air Force, however, as a senior engineer for air traffic control and navigtion systems then under development. In 1971, he was assigned to the U.S. Air Force Electronic Systems Division at Hanscom Air Force Base as the chief engineer of the new air traffic control and navigation cpabilities for the Air Force. He was appointed director of Air Traffic Control Systems for the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Federal Aviation Administration. During this period he was twice awarded the Department of the Air Force Exceptional Civilian Service Award by the Secretary of the Air Force. Following his retirement from the Air Force in 1980, Mr. Lyon was an aviation consultant to the aerospace and electronic industry. He was active in several professional societies including the Air Traffic Control Association, Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, Air Force Association and the American Institute ofAeronautics and Astronautics. An avid outdoorsman, he enjoyed skiing, biking and walking throughout New England. Surviving besides his wife are a son, Douglas Lyon of Nashua, N.H.; two dughters, Sara Lyon of Jaffery, N.H. and Melinda Lyon of Boxford; a sister, Margery Africa of Keuka Park, N.Y.; three stepdaughters, Amy Berman of New York City, Barbara Wray of Newfields, N.H., and Marcia Podlisny of Sharon; and many grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the First Church of Christ in Sandwich. Burial is private. Memorial donations may be made to the Hospice House of Hospice of Cape Cod, 88 Railroad Avenue, Barnstable, MA 02631

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