author
Charles W. Lyons
1868–1939
An energetic Jesuit educator and speaker, he led an unusual life in American Catholic higher education, serving as president of four different colleges. His surviving oration, The American Mind, hints at the broad civic and intellectual interests that shaped his public work.
1 Audiobook
Oration: The American Mind
by Charles W. Lyons
About the author
Born in Boston on January 31, 1868, Charles William Lyons entered the Jesuit order after first working in the wool industry. He became a Catholic priest and went on to build a remarkable career in education, eventually serving as president of four colleges — a distinction that set him apart among American Jesuits of his time.
Lyons was closely connected with several major Jesuit institutions, including Gonzaga College and Boston College, and he became known as an able administrator as well as a public speaker. His address The American Mind, preserved by Project Gutenberg, shows his interest in the ideas, character, and cultural direction of the United States.
He died on January 31, 1939, on his seventy-first birthday. Today he is remembered both as a prominent Jesuit educator and as a figure whose career stretched across an important period in the growth of Catholic higher education in America.