He was born on February 17, 1869 in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, to James B. Lyon and Anna M. Lyttleton He attended Pittsburgh High School and then Cornell University, graduating BSA 1891. He became an instructor in chemistry at the University of Nebraska, while working as an assistant chemist for the University's Experimental Station, specializing in soil chemistry. In 1893 he went to Germany to study with Bernhard Tollens at the University of Göttingen for a year. He then returned to the University of Nebraska as an instructor and in 1895, on the death of C. I. Ingersoll, the agriculturist and department director, became assistant professor there. At the Trans-Mississippi exhibition of 1898, he was in charge of the dairy test, and he regularly exhibited at the Nebraska State Fair. In 1901 he was promoted to an associate director. In 1899 he married to Miss Bertha Clark, the daughter of banker John R. Clark of Lincoln, Nebraska. They had two sons: John and George. In 1906 he became chairman of the department of Soil Technology at the College of Agriculture of Cornell University. During his eleven years of service at the University, he was instrumental in the distribution of durum wheat, Kherson oat from south Russia, bromegrass, and various varieties of early maturing corn in the state. He also collaborated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in plant breeding activities. In 1904 he was awarded a Ph.D. from Cornell with a thesis titled, "A Method for Improving the Quality of Wheat for Bread Making". He joined the faculty of Cornell in 1906, becoming professor of Experimental Agronomy. From 1907–1909, he served as secretary for the American Society of Agronomy; initially on a temporary basis during the foundation of the society, then being elected to the position in the following years. In 1912, Professor Lyon was named head of the department of soil technology at the Cornell University College of Agriculture. At Cornwell's Caldwell Field, Professor Lyon performed numerous field studies, including lysimeter and plat experiments. In 1913, he and fellow Cornell Professor James A. Bizzell were awarded the Howard N. Potts Medal for their paper, "The Relation of Certain Non-Leguminous Plants to the Nitrate Contents in Soil". Beginning in 1907, he published various textbooks about soil science. He remained at Cornell until retiring as Emeritus Professor in 1937. He died in 1938.
