[2][3] After graduation from Hanover High School (where he was president of his senior class), Lanyon served from 1944 to 1946 as a radio operator in the U.S. Navy.

In 1950 he graduated from Cornell University, where Donald Griffin, Arthur Augustus Allen, and Peter Paul Kellogg[2][4] stimulated his interest in recording bird songs.

In the summer of 1947 Lanyon met Vernia "Vickie" Elizabeth Hall (1925–2004) when he worked for National Capital Parks in Washington, D.C.

He and Vickie then confirmed that vocalizations of hand-reared nestlings were innate, and that dawn songs of adult male Myiarchus were highly conserved characters for species diagnosis.

Accepting an offer from Dean Amadon,[2] he joined in 1957 the ornithology department of the American Museum of Natural History and remained on the staff until his retirement in 1988.

[2] Scott Lanyon became an ornithologist and, at the University of Minnesota, a professor and head of the department of ecology, evolution and behavior, as well as a vice provost and the dean of graduate education.

[2] Cynthia "Cyndy" Lanyon Chandler became an information systems professional in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry.

[5] For 20 years the AMNH managed 98.8 acres of rolling woodlands constituting the former Kalbfleisch estate as a research sanctuary with abundant birds, turtles, and snakes.

[12] "The American Museum of Natural History is tarnishing its image," said Elsa Shepardson of the Cold Spring Harbor Preservation Association.