James A. Lyons III ’72

Jim Lyons died unexpectedly in his sleep due to heart complications, at home in Carlsbad, Calif., on May 12, 2011.

Jim came to Princeton from Newtown Square, Pa. He had excelled in academics as well as basketball and baseball at Devon Prep.

Jim majored in history and was an avid student of languages, which he put to use in travels throughout his life. He graduated from Harvard Medical School and moved to California, building a successful, rewarding career as a psychiatrist, including 25 years at Napa State Hospital and then with Kaiser-Permanente in Carlsbad.

Jim returned east every spring to visit family and was a regular at our class dinners during Reunions. He enjoyed hiking and made many trips to the Grand Canyon and other national parks, and was a wide-ranging reader.

Jim was memorialized in the Napa Valley Register as "a great father. . . . He had proudly walked his daughter, Stacy, down the aisle last October. . . . His son, Kevin, had recently graduated [from] college and just moved in with him in his home in Carlsbad.”

To Stacy and Kevin; Jim’s parents; his five younger siblings, John, Mark, Christopher, Bernadette Lyons Giordano, and Joanne Lyons Leasure ’87; his son-in-law; his nieces and nephews; and friends and admirers, the class sends sincere condolences.