Obituary; Mike Lyon

Edward "Mike" Lyon
May 30, 1944-May 1, 2006

Edward "Mike" Lyon, 61, of Mapleton, Iowa died Monday, May 1, 2006 at
his home in Mapleton following eight years of prostate cancer and its
complications.

The Funeral Service for Mike was held Thursday, May 4 at 10:30 a.m. at
St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Mapleton with Rev. Dr. Scott Fiege
officiating. Burial was in Mt. Hope Cemetery at Mapleton. Norma Jean
Dose was the organist and Georgine Wessell was the vocalist.
Visitation was Wednesday, May 3 after 2:00 p.m. with a Prayer Service
at 6:30 p.m. all at the Armstrong Funeral Home in Mapleton.

Edward Michael Lyon was born May 30, 1944, to Robert Bayard Lyon and
Marie (O'Meara) Lyon in Ida Grove, Iowa. He moved with his family to
Schleswig, Iowa where he graduated from Schleswig High School with the
class of 1962. He served his country in the Iowa National Guard. He
was united in marriage to Barbara Glau May 24, 1964 in Schleswig.

Mike was a long time publisher, having been involved in the newspaper
business for over 40 years. He and his wife, Barb, published the
Mapleton Press, the Schleswig Leader and the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper
until February of 2006. He and his wife also owned and operated Lyon
Photography, with a focus on wedding photography, for over 10 years.
They also owned the Ink Spot, a screen printing and embroidery
business until 2006.

In 1985, Mike saw the potential of using a laser writer to replace
compugraphic equipment in the publishing of newspapers. He was the
first in the nation to start a desk top publishing system. He sold
systems in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota and also
consulted with publishers in many other states.

Mike received numerous awards over the years for his newspaper skills,
some including the Master Editor Publishers Award, the Iowa Newspaper
Association's highest honor, the INA's Distinguished Service Award,
the INA's first "Friend of Iowa' Newspaper Award, and the Iowa High
School Athletic Association's News Media Award. He was president of
the Interstate Newspaper Association in 1984 and a member of the Iowa
Newspaper Association Board for nine years serving as president and on
numerous INA committees.

In the Mapleton community, Mike was a very active citizen. He was a
member of St. Matthew Lutheran Church, a member of the Mapleton Club
where he served on their board and as president, helped start a Jaycee
Chapter in Mapleton, served on the Mapleton Fire Department and was
one of the founders and president of the Maple Valley Development
Corporation. He was instrumental in bringing the Maple Valley Medical
Clinic to Mapleton. For his civic contributions to Mapleton, Mike was
awarded the Mapleton Outstanding Citizen Award and the Mapleton Rotary
Club's Service Above Self Award, both in 2005.

Mike had a great love of the Loess Hills and the State of Iowa. Since
his diagnosis of cancer, he spent as much time as he could
photographing the hills, country churches and rural scenery. His
photos can be found in the June E. Nylen Cancer Center, Maple Heights
Nursing Home, and Mapleton City Hall, as well as in the homes of his
many friends. He also published a book of his country churches along
with poetry by his good friend, Georgine Wessell.

Mike is survived by his wife and best friend of 41 years, Barb; two
daughters, Rebecca Lyon of Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Patricia
Barnard and her husband, Mark, of Hugo, Minnesota; one red haired
grandson, Damion Scobie of Hugo, Minnesota; one brother, Doug Lyon and
his wife, Dee, of Schleswig, Iowa; one sister, Sandy Rickert and her
husband, Phil, of Santa Fe, New Mexico; his mother-in-law, Marcella
Glau of Mapleton; plus other family members; and many friends and
associates in the tri-state area.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Bob and Marie (O'Meara) Lyon and his grandparents

Memorials may be directed to the Mapleton Endowment Fund in Mike's honor.

Honorary pallbearers were The Mapleton Fire Department and The Mapleton Press staff.

Pallbearers were Tom McNamara, Bill Monroe, Ed Maier, Keith Robinson, Steve Oberg and Todd Sadler.

Arrangements were made under the direction of the Armstrong Funeral Home of Mapleton

The end of an era; Happy retirement, dear friends

Now that the deal has gone through and last week it was reported on in these newspapers, I can finally write about it. The end of an 83 year era in Western Iowa newspapers.

When I first met Mike Lyon, I was intimidated. And justifiably so, but not just because he’s so tall or because he can be “hard to read,” but because he’s a consummate professional. He took pride not just in his own work, but in the caliber of everything Lyon Publishing produced.

I was a gung-ho college kid. I’d been editor of my high school paper but opted not to pursue the same path in college. I drew cartoons and wrote opinion pieces, but didn’t have to gather information and report it, interview or sell ads.

My then fiancé, Bethany had worked for Mike and Barb Lyon in high school and summers after working on the COU yearbook and Ye Aulde Bobcat. She had gotten very good at interviewing and reporting. The summer we got married she somehow talked them into hiring me for some special projects like a special edition of the NEWSpaper for Charter Oak’s Centennial.

That year Lyon published a plat book, so I learned fast about how to sell ads, which can be very hard. Believe me, asking people for money is always hard even if you don’t take rejection personally and you really believe in the product or service you’re providing.

Where both advertising and civic involvement are concerned, Mike was a good teacher and a good example. He believes in small town Iowa and supporting the local community. Advertising in your local paper isn’t just supporting the paper, it’s participating in that community. It shows that you’re proud of your town and it’s investing in that community.

Of course a newspaper is a business and even journalists and publishers need to make a living, but so many small towns aren’t lucky enough to have newspapers. And newspapers benefit their communities in lots of ways, like churches, schools, and sports teams, they are something citizens share in common. They add a cohesive element that brings and holds folks together. They’re a catalyst that can promote community and participation in civic life, activities, projects and politics.

Whether it was Mapleton activities, the Loess Hills, The Iowa Newspaper Association, community clubs and commercial clubs, the fire department or the schools in Schleswig, Mapleton, Charter Oak and Ute, Lyon Publishing and Mike and Barb Lyon have led the way in promoting communities.

As you read in last weeks paper, Mike pioneered the technological revolution in publishing. When I joined my high school newspaper staff we were still mopping photo-developing chemicals up from under our typesetter. Mike took the plunge and started using Apple Macintosh computers with laser printers, then he convinced his colleagues all over Iowa and the Midwest to follow his lead.

Lots of people like to talk about having seen horses, early Fords and now electric-hybrid and ethanol cars during their lifetimes. During his life time, Mike watched his father and grandfather loading printing presses with moveable lead type, developed film in a darkroom and used smelly typesetters and now can download digital images from a camera, complete an entire edition of the Mapleton PRESS on a computer and email it to the printers in minutes.

My fond memories will include laughing and sharing coffee, treats and family stories with Barb twice a day at break time. Like a mother hen, she’d remind us when we were laying out pages that stories and pictures are nice, but you couldn’t even have a newspaper without ads.

I will remember and appreciate all the lessons and advice about designing layouts, ads and t-shirts, and taking and processing photos from Mike. How he’d always call me “young man,” or “friend.”

The front office was always busy with visitors. Many were neighbors and friends, many were clients and merchants, but it was fun to hear the laughter and banter with Mike and Barb of people who came in every week, almost like a restaurant or bar has its “regulars.” And of course lunches at either the Beef and Brew or Picadilly Circus in Mapleton.

Last summer when he broke the news that they were looking for a buyer, the Lyon Publishing “family” wept and comforted each other. This family business wasn’t just a business, it was and will always be a family. That makes it a labor of love.

Mike and Barb, thank you. Please know that many, many people love you and will miss you in this business. May God bless your retirement and restore your health.

Readers, why not shower the Lyons with cards or at least shower these three newspapers with letters to the editor and cards of thanks expressing your good wishes?

The new owner Mark Rhoades also owns the Seward Independent. As an alumnus of Concordia University in Seward Nebraska, I can tell you that we’re very lucky that he’s who finally purchased these papers. The Independent, like the Mapleton PRESS is a well designed, good looking paper with excellent news and feature coverage.

Believe me, there were three alternatives and none of them are as good for us as Mark Rhoades. Many small town newspapers are “rinky dink” things that look like they’re thrown together sloppily by folks who may mean well, but either aren’t well trained or don’t take as much pride in their work as Mike and Barb have.

Many small town newspapers have been swallowed up by huge corporations. This isn’t all bad. I love the look and photography and writing of some of our neighboring towns papers. But if you happen to see the several of them on the news stands next to each other, you notice that they all look alike. Just like every Applebee’s, Denny’s, and McDonald’s looks the same.

And of course many towns just lose their papers altogether. The best way to keep that from happening is two things. Please continue to support us with your subscriptions and your advertising, and contribute.

Especially in this day and age of digital cameras, even camera phones, computers, faxes and emails it is easier than ever to help support and participate with your local newspapers. You don’t have to be a professional writer or photographer- or even amateur ones like me! Send us your letters, send us your story ideas, and send us your stories and pictures. In the past, people have contributed travel journals, puzzles, columns, tid-bits, recipes, and of course pictures.

What I did on my summer vacation

What I did on my summer vacation

Twenty-four years ago my buddy Jason and I decided we were going to be comic book artists.

Twenty-two years ago I was inspired by the cool clipart in my youth group’s newsletter. The youth minister sought our submissions- stories, poems, jokes and cartoons. At that point I decided three things, one was that magazine gag cartoons and comic strips were just as cool as comic books and I was going to draw them. The third was that laying out a newsletter, newspaper, magazine, etc. was really cool.

Twenty-one years ago I discovered a section of the Phoenix Gazette that I’d overlooked. Once a week, high school students from all over the metro area contributed stories, pictures, and a comic strip to ‘the Teen Gazette,’ which ranged from one to four pages, depending on the week. I also noticed that the cartoonist was a graduating Senior. That’s when I decided to become a cartoonist. I drew up a few samples and submitted them to the Teen Gazette. They ran them and kept running them for the next four years.

That fall I discovered what I thought was the coolest thing of all time- Shadow Mountain High School had it’s own newspaper! Anywhere from four to twelve pages, depending on the month. I told the advisor that I was already drawing a comic strip in the Teen Gazette, he and the student-editor asked me to draw editorial cartoons. Naturally, I decided to become a political cartoonist.

Sophomore year they made me “Art Director” and put me on staff full time. It was a class that I got credit for. I was in heaven. It was hard work, working with blue pencils and dummy-sheets, an off-set typesetting machine, line-tape, pica rulers and exacto blades. Late work nights and difficult deadlines, but I loved it. I decided that the cartooning field was too competitive, so I would become a graphic designer, just in case.

I had “Journalism” put on my class ring. I wondered if that was wise, so much could change in a year or two.

Toward the end of Junior year, the student-editor and advisor asked me to apply to be editor. I balked at the responsibility. They pressed. The only other candidates weren’t as qualified. I caved, and I paid for it. It was even harder work and mounds of stress, but I was glad I did it. That year I decided that if I could ask a genie for anything, it would be to get to be a newspaper columnist. Of course I knew that the real-life route there was a lot more difficult than I’d ever choose to travel.

Seventeen years ago I opted not to actively pursue the editor’s chair of my college paper, but I did draw cartoons for it, both political and otherwise. I even got called to the President’s office about one once. And I got to write a political column some too.

Fourteen years ago my fiancé’ managed to land me a job at Lyon Publishing. She’d worked for the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper throughout high school and was yearbook editor. I remember the smell of press ink in the office when I first came entered. It was like the smell of sawdust for circus folk.

That was the year of Charter Oak’s centennial. I had to sell ads for a special edition, and for a Platte book. Mike Lyon taught me a lot and Barb Lyon seemed to like my cartoons.

Years past and I became a high school Art teacher, Yearbook, and Newspaper Advisor.

Three years ago, I asked Mike Lyon if I could work for him that summer. What a treat. That year I learned what the newspaper business was really like. Difficult, but a joy.

At the end of that summer, I wrote a column called “What I did on my summer vacation.”

Last spring, I BEGGED Mike to hire me for another summer. They needed someone to help fill some gaps. This has been an emotionally difficult summer for Lyon Publishing, as anyone close to the papers knows.

I don’t know how much I was able to help. If anything, I got more than I gave. I learned even more and I got to do things I love and got paid for it.

I can only hope that I was able to help and contribute enough to make me worth it to them. I’d like to thank the Lyons for giving me a chance, and teaching me so much. I’d like to thank their staff for being so friendly, and including me as one of the family.

I’d also like to remind readers how lucky they are, in such small towns to have such nice newspapers. I encourage all of you to support them by contributing your stories and pictures, renewing your subscriptions, and of course by advertising.

A quick review

I understand that this column is now being seen in the Schleswig Leader. Actually, I think it’s been running there for several weeks now. In the event that this has been at all confusing or even just a novelty- I’d like to clear up any misunderstandings this has led to and answer any possible questions that it might have raised.

First of all, I’m not Mike. I assume that you in Schleswig would know that but at least once a reader of the Charter Oak-Ute NEWspaper mistakenly thought that I was the editor. Definitely not. As Schleswigites know, the Lyon family started ‘the Leader’ then expansions and purchases led them to Mapleton and ‘the PRESS.’ Mike Lyon is the publisher.

Mike & Barb Lyon are good people. They’ve always been very kind and generous with me. Back in the summer of 2002 I managed to talk them in to hiring me for the summer and at the end I submitted an essay called “What I did on my summer vacation,” as perhaps the first installment of a weekly column for the Charter Oak & Ute paper.

The closest thing I think Mike has to an Editor, besides himself would have to be Bonnie Schroeder. When I submitted my first column, she said “We should have been doing this all summer.” She’s always been sweet to me too.

I thought for a long time about what to name this feature. I wanted to call it “Sex, Politics and Religion,” because wanted to be able to write about the things that we often avoid talking about. My hope was that I’d make readers think and get people talking about something other than just the weather.
But I was afraid that such a maverick title would scare readers off, so I just went with “Ted’s Column.” Generic, but safe. I figured it would also give me the freedom to not have to take myself too seriously all the time. Part of me hoped to become the small town Iowa version of Dave Berry.

So who the heck am I and how do I get off writing a weekly column in (now) two small town newspapers if I’m not Mike or Bonnie?

I’m Ted. I live in Charter Oak. I teach Art, Newspaper, Yearbook, computer Graphics, and coach Cheerleading down in Dunlap at Boyer Valley. Yeah, I’m a straight, married, middle-aged guy who coaches cheerleading- but that’s a whole ‘nother column.

I’m originally from the red, red state of Arizona. I was the Editor of my high school newspaper and dreamt of being either a syndicated columnist or an editorial cartoonist. I got my BSEd from Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska. I majored in History and in Art. Seward is where I fell in love with the Midwest and with my wife Bethany, a Neddermeyer from Charter Oak, who’s now a guidance counselor at Maple Valley in Mapleton.

So that’s who I am, but where am I coming from?

Sex: That’s not something I think we should talk about in polite company.
Politics: I always thought of my self as a moderate, pro-worker, pro-farming, lower-middle class traditional kind of guy, but dang, our country has really swung about as far to the right as it can lately, hasn’t it? Some people accuse me of leaning to the left, that may be so, but it’s only because I feel like the boat is a bout to capsize and I need a sense of balance, not because I want to shake the boat for shaking sake. I apologize in advance if I ever set you off, I’m a firm believer in agreeing to disagree but continuing to talk to each other. But like I said, my hope is to make you think and get you talking- better yet, write a letter to the Editor (Mike or Bonnie, not me).

Religion: By definition, this is what is the most important thing in anyone’s life, so it’s pretty difficult for me to not write about it. But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. (Jeremiah 20:9).

I went to Concordia because it’s a Christian college. I wrestled with whether or not to become a pastor and Beth and I taught for 7 years at a Christian school in Los Angeles. I’ve been the Youth Counselor at St. John in Charter Oak since we moved back. So, you can expect some faith issues in this column from time to time.
I’m sure that it drives some people batty that anyone can be a Missouri Synod Lutheran and a registered Democrat at the same time. I figure, Jesus was a radical, barefoot, long haired, unemployed, homeless guy who bucked the establishment and loved, accepted, spent time with, forgave, and was even willing to die for everyone and anyone no matter who they were. I’m pretty tame by comparison.

Somehow the good Lord and Mike saw fit to hire me again this summer, so who knows, even though Schleswig is really Bonnie’s beat, maybe I’ll get to meet some of you and try to sell you an ad. Even if I don’t I hope that you’ll keep reading and I hope you enjoy what you read most of the time.

The rest of the time, I hope you’ll send your letters to Bonnie so we can publish them, after all this is YOUR newspaper. The best way to keep it that way is to participate in it by contributing. Have a great summer.

A little Shop-Talk

October 6-12 was National Newspaper Week. I bet ya didn’t even notice, did ya? I noticed, but then I don’t just teach Art, I teach Newspaper and Yearbook.

You might have noticed that a couple of weeks ago that many newspapers, CNN and Good Morning America ran a rather peculiar story. Most of them cited the World Health Organization as reporting that within a couple of hundred years, there would be no more natural blondes.

According to Bill Hoffmann’s story in the New York Post, a German research laboratory believed that the gene for naturally blonde hair would become extinct by the year 2202. Supposedly two things were bringing about the demise of the blonde gene. For one, it’s a recessive gene anyway, and for another, men are supposedly more attracted to fake blondes than real ones so they’re not reproducing as much as they used to.

Well, the word over the wire services is that the World Health Organization never issued such a report, never did such research and doesn’t know where the story came from.

According to Lawrence Altman at the New York Times, CNN got it from Good Morning America, ABC anchors heard it from an ABC producer in London, who saw it in a British newspaper.

These guys obviously forgot three basic rules of journalism.

First; "Get it first, but first get it right"

Second, which is one way you make sure you get it right; "Confirm information with at least three independent sources."

Third; "Use reliable sources"

In this day and age of 24 hour news, the internet, cable and satellite TV, too many reporters are quoting each other instead of returning to the original source of the information. Or maybe Charles Gibson just wanted to know whether or not Diane Sawyer dyes her hair.

I bring it up because I don’t think we appreciate our small, local newspapers enough. It’s not easy to put one of these things together every week and get things done right and get them done on time.

Sure, a few weird people like me thing it’s fun, but a lot of really hard working farmers think that planting and bailing and harvesting is fun, that doesn’t make it easy. Those folks who’s names are in that box on the bottom left corner of page two go through a lot of stress for ten or twelve hours every Monday and Tuesday. From writing, checking, rechecking, pasting up and correcting to folding and stuffing, labeling and delivering they’re working hard to put it together. And they’re not becoming millionaires doing it.

Someday I think I’d like to write a feature story on the history of Lyon Publishing. A small town, small business that’s stayed in the family and been recognized throughout the state for it’s contributions to journalism and their communities. It started with the Schleswig LEADER, added the Mapleton PRESS , added the Ute Independent and then consolidated it with the Charter Oak TIMES. Again, not making millions, doing it 1) for the love of the work, a lot like why farmers farm and 2) to serve us, the community.

And don’t think that having a Mapleton company own the Charter Oak & Ute paper is anything like the Chicago Tribune Company owning the Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s not even comparable to the Omaha World Herald buying out the Council Bluffs Nonpareil. The Herald is owned by the Ganett Corporation, by the way, who publish USA Today. Mapleton are our neighbors, part of rural western Iowa.

One of the best things about the small, local press is that you get to be part of it. You send in your story ideas, you hold us accountable when we get a fact wrong or a name misspelled (miss-spelled?) (sic).

Heck, you can actually write the stories or take the pictures! I for one have really appreciated the things that people like Lynn Hoffman, JoAnne Seufert, Ken Lally and Mary Ellen Keating contribute. And if you enjoy this column at all, don’t just tell me, tell Mike & Barb Lyon. Better yet, tell your friends and relatives and try to convince them to buy a copy or even better, subscribe.

But you know what we’d really appreciate? Letters to the editor. It’s easy to mail it, or give it to Jackie, or email it. My email address is under my byline, or you could send it straight to the office at mpress@pionet.net.

The more you contribute and participate, (not to mention the more people who subscribe) the better the NEWSpaper will be. It will be more personal, more unique to us, and you’ll make it more likely that we’ll be able to continue to have our own local newspaper on into the future.

What I did on my Summer Vacation

Last May, as summer was getting closer, I started thinking about finding a summer job. Lots of teachers do. Last year, I helped a contractor strip and re-paint coolers in the Farmland for a few weeks. It was hard work. Unfortunately, the contractor had jobs lined up this year that would put his operation in Illinois most of the summer. Not that Farmland is in a position to use him right now anyway.

I remembered advice that my Aunt Rene' gave me years ago; "do something that will help you in your field." Rene' was a college academic and career counselor, after all.

So, since I'm the yearbook advisor for Boyer Valley High School, it made sense to look for work taking pictures, writing stories, and designing layouts.

When she was in high school, my wife Bethany had worked for Mike and Barb Lyon at the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and the Mapleton PRESS. So, I knocked on Mike's door (actually it was an email). I felt that I had to convince him that I was far more competent than I was as a college kid when Bethany and I worked for him on the Charter Oak Centennial Edition the summer before we got married. To my surprise, he gave me a chance.

What a great job! I had three goals when I started; to get to know more people in and more about the community, to hone my skills so that I'd become a better Journalism teacher in the Fall, and to give back as to the people who have given so much to me and my family.

What I got was to live out a boyhood fantasy. Other guys dream about winning the Daytona 500 or playing quarterback in the Rose Bowl. As editor of my school newspaper at Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix, Arizona I planned on pasting-up copy at a major metropolitan daily. My best-case scenario had me either as the political cartoonist or a political columnist for the Chicago Sun Times.

This summer I not only had to ask the Crawford County Democratic party chairman on line one to "please hold," so that I could answer a call from the Republican party chairman on line two- I actually got to sit in the boss' chair and layout the front page. More importantly, I got to meet and know more about some wonderful people- you.

So, I must say thank you to Mike and Barb for giving me this opportunity and to you, gentle readers, for your gracious encouragement and support. If teaching, coaching, Church youth group, and helping raise two little girls will allow it- I hope to freelance some stories, commentary, and maybe even some comics for you throughout the year. We need your input too. Please give us your feedback and ideas. Email us your opinions, story ideas and reactions to what we run. This is your paper; participate with us in serving our communities.