As an undergraduate at Stanford he focused on Shakespeare with the legendary professor Margery Bailey,[1] the namesake of his endowed chair.
After finishing his masters, Lyons spent four years as a lieutenant in US Navy, where he served in the Far East and later in Washington, D.C as a liaison to Jacques Cousteau.
In 1968 he moved on to the University of California, Berkeley becoming a professor of dramatic art and later the associate dean of letters and sciences.
[7] Lyons' scholarly writings included Shakespeare, Chekov, Ibsen, Brecht, Beckett, and Shepard.
[8] Throughout his career, Lyons continued to work at the practice of theater, directing productions of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, William Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona and Hamlet with Andre Braugher in the title role.