When he finally made it to head of the line on registration day in 1958, the Beaumont High School graduate-turned-anxious college freshman met Lamar’s chair of electrical engineering, Lloyd Cherry, for the first time.
Upon seeing Don Lyle’s placement test scores, Cherry’s interest was sparked, and he asked how things were going. “I told him two of the classes I needed to fit with my work schedule were closed,” Lyle said. “He immediately walked me over to the English and history departments and persuaded them to allow me into those two classes.”
Lyle -63 began his journey at Lamar as a full-time student that first semester, but the demands of his job as an engineering assistant at Gulf States Utilities Co. soon channeled him toward night classes. While his studies stretched on, and life took him on a different path – one that did not include a degree from Lamar – his appreciation for the department chair with a genuine concern for students never
dimmed.
“I feel a real fondness for Lloyd Cherry,” Lyle said of the man who served as dean of Lamar’s College of Engineering from 1967 until his death in 1974. Today, as he reflects on the things that were instrumental in “what degree of success I’ve had in life” Lyle includes the Boy Scouts of America and Lamar.
“Lamar really gave me a good foundation,” he said. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had a foundation that would allow me to function as a peer with the folks out of Cal Tech and MIT. I didn’t feel like I was second class to anybody.”
Jack Hopper, dean of the College of Engineering, credits much of today’s momentum in the college to Lyle. “He joined the Advisory Council in 2002 and has motivated, activated and stimulated the members of the college constantly since joining,” Hopper said. “His first major contribution was to lead the college in developing a vision. We now call it Vision 2008, but, in reality, it is a strategic plan through 2013, which he and Phil Drayer (current Advisory Council chair) have crafted for the college.”
Much of Lyle’s work is based on Beyond Entrepreneurship, a book by James Collins and William Lazier, two of Lyle’s acquaintances from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Lyle has held numerous workshops for the engineering college’s department chairs and faculty, guiding them through the vision and strategic planning process, Hopper said. “He is still promoting and urging us on to excellence.” Lyle’s efforts are also tangible. Earlier this year, he accompanied Harley Myler, Mitchell Endowed Chair holder and chair of the electrical engineering department, and Hopper on a trip to visit close associates at Carnegie Mellon University to observe their entrepreneurship projects and courses.
“Don’s commitment of financial support is truly exceptional,” Hopper said. “In addition to a huge time and energy investment in Lamar, he and Maryann have provided funds to permanently endow five engineering scholarships at $4,000 per year.” Maryann has established a scholarship for education students.
That kind of scholarship support would have come in handy during his own time as a student at Lamar, but, instead, Lyle worked in a full-time job at Gulf States Utilities. Among his responsibilities at GSU was a weekly procedure that required complicated computations worked out on a full-keyboard calculator. Tiring of the repetitive daylong process, Lyle eyed the company’s vacuum tube and punched-card-era computer in the basement. With a hunch that he could tame it well enough to do his bidding, Lyle sought times when it wasn’t being used for financial calculations.
After quickly mastering his first stab at programming, he began to develop other programs to solve day-to-day problems and soon grew a reputation as the department’s computer “expert.” Before long, the company was buying time on a mainframe IBM 709 housed at Texas A&M in a specially built 4,500-square-foot room,
so Lyle could continue his work for GSU on trips to College Station.
In 1963, he accepted a job at Texas A&M, helping electric utility companies solve power-system problems. He continued taking college classes there, but, as he was quickly becoming expert in the developing field, he also lectured in senior EE
courses and in a graduate computer science course. But mostly, he was busy researching and developing digital solutions to power problems, extending and enhancing existing programs, and developing algorithms to simulate large power generation, transmission and distribution systems.
Power companies across the nation used Lyle’s programs in planning electric transmission and distribution systems. In fact, his work was so well respected that he was called on to be the principal simulation consultant in the study of the November 1965 Northeast Blackout. Using programs he had developed at TAMU, Lyle was eventually able to simulate the critical first six seconds of the electrical-system disaster
that affected some 30 million people for as long as 13 and a half hours.
In 1967, Lyle left Texas A&M and joined large power-systems engineering firm Ebasco Services in New York City as principal engineer. The next year, he decided to specialize in the design and implementation of computer systems, so he left the power industry and joined Burroughs Corp., now Unisys, in Pasadena, Calif., as a systems programmer. He rapidly advanced through several levels of management
with the world leader in advanced computer architecture, eventually becoming head of the large computer systems software division where he oversaw work in operating systems, compilers, database software and more.
As he participated in the design and implementation of both hardware and software for the corporation’s large systems, he was granted several patents in computer architecture.
In 1973, Lyle established and managed a research laboratory in La Jolla, Calif. Later, he served as a plant general manager in England, then in the U.S. In 1980, he was promoted to group executive responsible for engineering and manufacturing of the corporation’s developing microprocessor-based systems and operations on
four continents, a job that required frequent international travel.
When he left Burroughs in 1983, Lyle was corporate vice president of advanced technology. He chose to pursue independent practice, consulting on the management of high-technology projects for leading corporations like IBM, HP,
Tandem, Compaq, Unisys and scores of smaller companies. As a turnaround manager, he served as CEO of private corporations and on the boards of more than 20 public and private companies.
Today, Lyle serves on the boards of one New York Stock Exchange corporation and two private companies. He also lends his experience to six not-for-profit entities including the Lamar University Foundation and the Lamar University
College of Engineering Advisory Board. “I think I owe at lot to the institution that provided me with the original foundation to build a career on,” he said.
“Since my jobs have involved extensive travel – on some of which I was joined by my wife Maryann – I’ve had the opportunity to visit every continent,” Lyle said. “My wife dragged me to Antarctica, not business!”
Maryann (Johnson) Lyle graduated from French High School in Beaumont and earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Lamar in 1965. The couple calls La Jolla home, but they also spend time at their second home on Padre Island near Corpus Christi and with Don’s daughter Laura, her husband Dr. Keith Hood and their four grandchildren.
In retirement, Lyle pursues his passion for fishing in exotic locations. This year’s trips include Costa Rica, Panama, Argentina and four trips to Alaska. This summer, the couple will take a chartered 50-foot cabin cruiser on a 1,000-mile trip up the Inside Passage from Friday Harbor, Wash., to Juneau, Ala. “We’ll devote about five
weeks to the trip and eat a lot of crab, salmon and halibut that we’ll catch ourselves,” he said with a grin.
That kind of trip takes extraordinary effort (as well as a U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton master’s license), but that’s just the approach Lyle has been taking throughout life. Yet the man who has done so much to better the lives of others is quick to acknowledge the opportunities others have afforded him.
He believes the spirit of care epitomized by the late Lloyd Cherry lives on at Lamar today. “There is a core value that I think virtually all the faculty and staff at Lamar share, and that is that the success of each student really matters to them,” he said.
