Date of death: 9/3/2008
Saint Meinrad Class: O 1950
Father George Lyon, O.S.B., a founding member of the Benedictine community of Blue Cloud, died after suffering with cancer for several months. He had been told near the end of last year that he would be here for Christmas, but he probably wouldn’t see the Super Bowl. He lived almost long enough to watch the World Series. Viewing sports on television had been one of his favorite pastimes. The other was playing golf.Father George was born on January 14, 1924 at Loretto, Kentucky where his father operated a country general store. He attended the minor seminary at Saint Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana and entered the novitiate there in 1944. He professed vows in 1945 and was ordained a priest in 1950 and was assigned to the new monastic foundation in South Dakota. A year later, after having worked on the construction of the monastery, he went to St. Ann’s Mission on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota. In 1958, he was sent to St. Paul’s Mission on the Yankton Reservation in South Dakota. Eventually, he became the superior at both of these missions. For a total of thirty years Father George worked among the Ojibwa and Dakota people. Besides serving the missions pastorally, he at various times was a dormitory prefect, a Latin teacher, basketball coach, and school bus driver. Among the duties he filled at Blue Cloud Abbey were the positions of novice master, vocation director, farm manager, and prior.Father George had a pleasant and calm disposition. His manner of dying did not differ from how he lived his life, patiently and with gratitude, especially to those who cared for him in his last days. Father George’s funeral was on September 6, 2008 at Blue Cloud Abbey. We ask that he be remembered in the prayers for the deceased by the members of our monastic congregation and all other Benedictines.Abbot Thomas Hillenbrand, O.S.B. and the Monks of Blue Cloud Abbey, Marvin, South DakotaInformation obtained from the Blue Cloud Abbey Web site, www.bluecloud.org