42 Transactions Tennessee Academy of Science 



JAMES ADAIR LYON, A.M., PH.D., LL.B. 



BY J. I. D. HINDS, CASTLE HEIGHTS SCHOOL, LEBANON, TENN. 



[Read before the Academy, November 26, 1915.] 



In the death of Dr. James Adair Lyon, Professor of Physics and 

 Astronomy in the Southwestern Presbyterian University, at Clarks- 

 ville, Tennessee, the Tennessee Academy of Science has lost a val- 

 uable and enthusiastic member. After several months of illness, he 

 died at his home in Clarksville on September 12, 1915, and was 

 buried two days later. The authorities of the University, in which 

 he had been a professor for more than thirty years, and the officers 

 and members of the Presbyterian Church, of which he was a ruling 

 elder, gave him special honors at his funeral. 



Dr. Lyon's father. Rev. James Adair Lyon, D.D., was a distin- 

 guished Presbyterian minister. He was one of the organizers of the 

 Southern Presbyterian Church, a member of its first General Assem- 

 bly in 1861, and moderator of the third Assembly which met in 

 1863. He was Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in the 

 University of Mississippi, and died in 1882. 



Dr. Lyon was born in St. Louis, Mo., July 19, 1852. When quite 

 young, he moved with his father to Columbus, Miss., where he grew 

 to young manhood and was prepared in private schools for college. 

 He entered the Sophomore Class in Princeton University in 1869, 

 and in 1872 graduated second in a class of eighty. He was awarded 

 the J. Cooke fellowship of $600.00 for excellence in mathematics. 

 He received from his Alma Mater the degree of Master of Arts in 

 1875 and the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1880. He studied 

 law in the University of Mississippi and graduated in 1874 with the 

 degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was married in 1875 to Miss Eliz- 

 abeth Barringer, of Oxford, Miss., who survives him. He leaves three 

 sons and one daughter, Profes.sor J. Adair Lyon, of Tulane Uni- 

 versity, New Orleans; Mr. Theodoric Lyon, of New Orleans; Pro- 

 fessor Scott C. Lyon, of the Presbyterian University, of Clarksville; 

 and Mrs. W. E. Cox, of Columbus, Miss. He is also survived by his 

 brother. Dr. A. A, Lyon, of Nashville, and his sisters, Mrs. John W. 



