Champ Lyons, Sr., MD*

Dr. Champ Lyons was widely hailed for the development of the cardiovascular division of the Medical College of the University of Alabama. An expert in the field of strokes, he directed the first significant series of operations performed on the carotid artery for the relief of stroke. Dr. Lyons grew up in Mobile, received his undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama, and graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in medicine. After serving as an instructor of surgery at Harvard, Dr. Lyons was appointed in 1950 to be the first full-time chairman of the surgery department of the Medical College of Alabama. He occupied the Medical Center’s first fully endowed chair, and the Medical Center later conferred upon him the title of Distinguished Professor.

Dr. Lyons served on a number of prestigious national committees and boards. He was chairman of the committee on preoperative and postoperative care of the American College of Surgeons. President Eisenhower appointed him to the board of the National Library of Medicine where he later served as its chairman. Dr. Champ Lyons also served as chairman of the American Medical Association’s section on surgery.