Elijah Wilson Lyon (1905–1989) was an American diplomatic historian who was the sixth president of Pomona College from 1941 to 1969.

[1] During his tenure at Pomona, he guided the college through a transformational and turbulent period, and he is credited with helping shape it into a leading liberal arts institution.

Lyon had planned on becoming a journalist, but history drew his interest later on in life.

When he returned to the United States, he became an assistant professor of history at Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, then at Colgate University.

Lyon's presidency was turbulent as it extended from the Second World War to Vietnam.