Arts & Humanities - Lyons Tribute

Paul Lyons

Paul Lyons will be sorely missed and much mourned by the Stockton community. While not a Mayflower faculty member, he has been a fixture at the college since its early days (arriving in 1980) and he has left his mark in all areas of college life, from the classroom to the committee meeting – the word ubiquitous comes to mind when one thinks of Paul at Stockton. There is hardly an issue that has arisen in the college community that hasn’t witnessed one of Paul’s passionate speeches or interventions. There will most certainly be a sense of loss among those engaged in college dealings for many years to come.

What struck one about Paul was the range of his accomplishments and the breadth of his interests. He was the quintessential Stockton faculty member, one who embraced the ideas of interdisciplinarity and exploration. His home program was that of Social Work in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, but he had ties going back to the Division of General Studies (where he was tenured), and he taught for many years for the Historical Studies Program as well. His undergraduate courses beyond the discipline of Social Work were many, focusing on the decade of the 1960s, the Vietnam War, the 20th-century United States, and ethnic and minority relations. He was also a mainstay of the Masters Program in Genocide and Holocaust Studies, and had taught courses on the Holocaust & the American Experience. For Paul, teaching was a fundamental part of his life, and the students responded to the deep interest he took in them and in helping them to develop their ideas. He once said that he would rather accept a stipend than a course release, not for the money, but because he couldn’t imagine not wanting to teach the course. His commitment to the students will be greatly missed by undergraduates and graduates alike.

Paul’s publication record was also formidable. He had published four books since finishing his Ph.D. at Bryn Mawr College, and a fifth book is set to appear this spring. Paul’s first book appeared in 1982 and was entitled, Philadelphia Communists, 1936-1956; this was followed by Class of ’66: Living in Suburban Middle America in 1994, and New Left, New Right and the Legacy of the Sixties in 1996. After publishing these three volumes with Temple University Press, Paul moved on to the University of Pennsylvania Press, where he published The People of this Generation: The Rise and Fall of the New Left in Philadelphia in 2003. The latest volume is American Conservatism: Thinking it, Teaching it, to be published by Vanderbilt University Press. It is a very innovative study that incorporates Paul's journal about teaching the subject of conservatism.

Paul was a very acute interpreter of the histories both of the New Left and of local communities. In part, this was because of his ability to listen to many conflicting voices and step outside his comfort level. While focusing primarily on the American Left, he would write about conservatism, not merely with the scorn of a radical, but as an intellectual who wanted to understand the radicalism inherent within elements of the conservative tradition. Similarly, while he grew up as an urban kid in 1950s Newark, NJ, he was able to capture the essence of the suburban lifestyle. But again it is his range that was so awe-inspiring. When I co-edited an Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture in the late 1990s, I was extremely pleased to have Paul writing articles for us, because his range of interests and his ability to write lucidly on any topic was extremely helpful when it came to filling important gaps. He knew about everything and could write well on any topic in American culture and politics.

Paul will be remembered for many things, I am sure, but his passion will definitely be one of them. There wasn’t a discussion that one had with him, whether it was a casual meeting in the corridor, a surprise visit to one’s office, or during a 3-mile campus run through the woods alongside Lake Pam, that wasn’t a spirited engagement. A run was a veritable seminar discussing all the latest ideas, what one was working on, what one’s hopes were for the college, and so forth. At the end of the exertion, one felt invigorated and mentally stimulated, and always pleased to know that there were people like Paul at Stockton to challenge and push you.

And this passion extended to his music. As one who taught courses on the 1960s, Paul certainly felt the power of music in his bones. He could talk for hours about bands and musicians, and he brought this commitment to his music playing on the faculty band. He loved the band, and he loved the other musicians; and he seemed deeply appreciative of the fact that the Stockton community loved the group back. For Paul, there was something deeply significant about playing for the band – it seemed to represent in a nutshell all that was good about Stockton. You felt when you watched him play that he was saying to himself, how great it is that I can get to do this – learn about music, teach about it, and entertain all for a good cause of raising scholarship money.

So much was going right for Paul recently. He was excited about Obama’s victory and the inauguration; he had been involved in planning for the Faculty Band to play at the House of Blues, in competition with two other college faculty bands; he was planning to go to Beijing this spring as an invited guest to lecture at the University of International Business and Economics, as well as visit his son, Max, who is currently living in China; and he was applying for promotion to the rank of Distinguished Professor. Paul seemed to be enjoying his success and relishing life. It was hard to imagine looking at him that he had battled cancer and had had a previous bout of heart disease. Seeing him in the gym exercising, one could only think he would be around for years to come. He exuded such vitality.

In the end, Paul was a great friend to many people, and I am sure we will all miss his friendly wave and smile of welcome. It is with deepest regret that we all learned of this loss to his wife Mary Hardwick, his family, and to the Stockton community.

See the Press of Atlantic City article on Paul here.

See the Tributes compiled by Marion Hussong here.

Rob Gregg