Sensational Seniors – May 2019

The May “Sensational Seniors” article features Stan and Judie Lyon. Both native Californians, Stan was born in San Diego on April 15, 1939. Stan’s mother oversaw the home while his father had a long career as an electrician with Rohr Aircraft. Stan and his younger brother were especially close to an aunt and uncle who lived in San Marino. They had two daughters, and the four cousins spent many weekend and holiday hours playing in a large field that bordered his aunt and uncle’s property. This idyllic scene was tragically altered when, one day while playing in the field, their three-year-old girl cousin, Kathy Fiscus, disappeared. A frantic search was started and continued until Stan’s brother found her in a well on the property. The event captured local and national concern and fear. Stan retells this tragic story with sadness. “It was absolutely awful. My aunt and uncle never recovered from it, and it still haunts me today.” This experience was recently relived when Stan was interviewed by a history professor who is writing a book on the sad event.

 Stan’s early school years were spent in Chula Vista, graduating from Chula Vista High School in 1957. He then enrolled in San Diego State University with the intent of majoring in engineering but, as Stan remembers, “Since I almost flunked out, I realized that engineering was not for me, so I switched my major to business.” This educational venture was a success, and in 1961 he received his Bachelor of Science in business. With the Vietnam War looming, Stan decided to join the Navy. In addition, in September 1961, he and Judie were married. “We really did not have a honeymoon unless you consider going from one training assignment to another,” Stan remembers, “but I wanted to qualify for as many Navy schools as possible.” He started at the pre-flight school in Pensacola, Florida to be a flight navigator. With this training behind him and a commission as an Ensign, he was sent to a Naval squadron on Whidbey Island that hunted for submarines.

Stan was retired out of the Navy in 1965 after suffering from and going through the treatments for thyroid cancer, a life-threatening event for this young man. Even though he had been cured and all the tests were positive, he was sent home. “That is what the military did,” Stan remembers. “For many years I would get an annual letter wanting to know if I was still alive.”

Judie was born in Glendale, California in September 1941. Her mother was a housewife while her father worked as an engineer for Lockheed Air. Judie was the oldest sibling in her family with a two-year and a fourteen-year younger brother. Because her father worked at a variety of jobs in a variety of places, Judie attended many different schools. After spending three and a half years attending high school in Middleton, Ohio, her parents decided they wanted to return to California, much to the chagrin of Judie. “The move away from my high school and all my friends was absolutely traumatic, especially just a few months before I was to graduate. I cried all the way through Ohio and into Missouri before my father threatened to put me on a bus to California.” According to Judie, the move to Chula Vista did come with two positives: “I made one great friend, Barb Trussell, who is still my best friend, and, after graduating from high school in 1959, I finally agreed to a blind date with a young man named Stan and in the process fell “madly in love with him.” This resulted in their engagement.

After high school, Judie enrolled in San Diego City College with the intent of majoring in general education. Her college career was cut short however, when shopping in a Chula Vista grocery store, she blacked out, fell and suffered a severe blow to her head. After recovering enough to go home, she again fainted while taking a shower, resulting in a trip to the hospital including several spinal taps to relieve the fluid on her brain. This ended her college schooling. Once she recovered from this accident, she and Stan decided to get married before Stan entered the service.

When Stan’s Navy duty ended after his bout with cancer, The Lyons returned to Chula Vista where Stan started working for his father’s old company, Rohr Aircraft. Using his business degree, Stan worked in the Rohr finance department as a cost analyst. But one day, when he heard two colleagues discussing the possibility of going to law school at night at the University of San Diego, he thought this might be a good option for him. Utilizing the G.I. Bill and a special “vocational rehabilitation” program, Stan was able to complete the four-year law program, working days and going to school at nights, graduating in 1972.

This grueling work and school schedule was compounded by the fact that Stan and Judie had added two children to the family. Judie remembers, “The children had Stan on Sunday morning and then he would study Sunday afternoon and evening. This was a very trying time for us, and, I admit, I was often lonely, but we managed, and Stan passed the bar exam on the first try.”

Upon passing the bar exam, Stan kept working at Rohr, now in their small law division, but Stan soon realized there was not much of a future for him at Rohr, so he started looking around, sending out blind resumes across California. While not overly optimistic about this approach, he was somewhat surprised and pleased when he received a call from the Chief Counsel for Douglas Aircraft to interview for a job in their legal division. The interview went well; he was hired and in 1974 he moved to Long Beach, California to start his 25-year career with the Aircraft Division of McDonnell-Douglas Corp., makers of the popular DC-9 and DC-10 airplanes. Stan’s main job at McDonnell-Douglas was to be part of a team that negotiated and developed contracts with airlines in the United States and around the world. Stan remembers his first business trip out of the states was to Cyprus just a few months after Cyprus had experienced a civil war. “Things were still unsettled in Cyprus, but we successfully negotiated a contract with Cyprus Airways and had a short work layover in Rome, the first of many trips I made to Rome with McDonnell-Douglas.” While Stan worked on negotiation teams in the U.S., Argentina and Brazil, his main travel was to the Far East and Europe. During these years, he had the opportunity to meet some interesting people. On an early trip to Ghana, he met the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, Shirley Temple. He laughs when remembering, “I walked into her office to see this famous movie star dressed in a three-piece suit, chewing gum and with her shoeless feet perched on the coffee table.” Stan made numerous trips to mainland China where he was to meet the President of China who he remembers as a very friendly man although he was President during the Tiananmen Square uprising. In 1997 McDonnell-Douglas was bought out by Boeing and Stan stayed with them until retiring in 1999.

Judie was to spend most of her time at their Orange County home, raising their two children and keeping the home going. As she relates, “I lived vicariously through Stan’s travels as he always returned from them with wonderful stories, but he also often returned exhausted, so I had to help heal his weary body.” Once their children were raised, an opportunity came in 1989 to live in Hong Kong where Stan’s company opened an office to be closer to their ever-increasing work in mainland China. Judie remembers this three-year stint in Hong Kong as an adult Disneyland. “We lived in a beautiful brand new 2,000 square foot apartment that had five bathrooms and an amazing view from the 26th floor. Back home I had never had any help but now I had a maid who was also a marvelous cook which came in handy as we entertained many McDonnell-Douglas executives.” Their car allowed them to explore Hong Kong, and Judie mastered the English left- side-of-the-road driving. She even witnessed the arrival of Prince Charles and Princess Diana to Hong Kong.

After Stan’s retirement, the Lyons went in search of new place to live. The criteria were that it be a smaller town that was centrally located and that it would have little traffic. Their parents were deceased, and their kids had grown up and moved on, so this opened the possibilities of moving to a new location. They started looking around California, going as far north as Yreka. While making a stop over in Fort Jones, Judie had a casual visit with a lady about what they were up to, and the lady suggested they look at Jacksonville, Oregon. While coming into town on South Stage, Judie spotted a yellow house in Pheasant Meadows and, even from afar declared, “I could live there the rest of my life.” Before they got too excited, Stan insisted on lunch and then they drove the town, coming eventually to Pheasant Meadows where they discovered the home Judie had spotted earlier was for sale. Judie remembers, “A veil came over me when I walked into the entry way, and I just knew that this home was for me.” They bought the house the next day and moved to Jacksonville on August 1, 2000.

They had just settled in to their new home when neighbor, Ruth Root, approached Stan and Judie with two brochures, one for the Jacksonville Boosters Club and one for the Jacksonville Garden Club. They both joined the Boosters Club and Judie joined the Garden Club. Within a couple months, Stan found himself assuming the role of Vice President which led to him serving as the Boosters President from 2002-2004 and then again in 2005-2006. In 2003 Stan and Don Cady founded the Jacksonville Boosters Foundation, which has grown significantly over the years and now, on an annual basis, the Foundation helps fund numerous projects that improve the livability of Jacksonville and retain its historic qualities. Stan remains a member of the Foundation Board.     

Judie, who had a long history of service in California, founded a project in Orange County which established a facility for homeless women and, as a result she became known on the street as “The Episcopal”. Judie found her niche in Jacksonville with the Garden Club. She has served as President of the Garden Club two times and, more importantly, established a network of close Garden Club friends who meet for coffee weekly and provide a support system for each other.

Stan and Judie Lyon epitomize a couple who have led active and productive lives and continue to do so in their senior years. They are part of what makes Jacksonville unique.