Lee Lyon: Friend and Fellow Adventurer

“A man is lucky if he has three good friends in his life.”
— Neligh Coates Sr.

I was lucky because one of my good friends, in fact, my best friend, was Lee Lyon. Lee had graduated from Harvard, joined the Army, became a pilot and flew the deadly Burmese Hump during World War II (there was no Air Force yet).

I met Lee in 1957 when his family arrived at Lake Lotawana. My family had been spending summers at Lake Lotawana since1931 when we built one of the first houses on the lake. By this time, I had been competitive sailboat racing for more than ten years and I was glad to mentor the newcomer and novice sailor. Lee absorbed everything. He was highly competitive and ready for our sailing adventures. We quickly developed a friendship that was to last for over 50 years.

I soon learned that my new friend was not only a nice guy but a very innovative and successful businessman. The company he ran, M. Lyon and Company, had been founded by his great-grandfather in 1870 and was originally a fur trading company dealing with the Indians. Later the company became wool traders. M Lyon and company is the oldest family-owned business in Kansas City and the first business to open an account at the First National Bank of Kansas City. Now they are in the business of processing cowhides.

What I did not realize, or had never thought about, was that no one ever killed a cow for its hide. The hide was strictly a byproduct of the slaughterhouse. Lee's company collected the fresh hides from the slaughterhouse, running the hides through a fleshing machine to remove dirt and the fat that remained on the hide, soaking the hides in a saltwater prime to preserve them, sorting and grading them, and then shipping them to the tanneries to be turned into leather. It was a business that processed thousands of hides to make a dollar or so on each one—high-volume, low-margin. The process was virtually unchanged from the time of the Egyptians.

But, my friend, Lee, changed all that. Lee realized that the fat next to the skin was different from normal fat as it did not harden when cold like normal animal fat. This is why cattle do not get stiff in cold weather. Lee developed a centrifuge to turn the special fat into a high-quality oil that could be used in cosmetics and other expensive products. He changed the business that had been unchanged for hundreds of years.

I'll never forget inspecting his boat to find that it was weighed down by all kinds of extra stuff in a class where every ounce over the 450-pound minimum weight was crucial. Lee asked how he could get the weight down and I gave him my smart answer “just like you would eat an elephant─one bite at a time.”

Being a fast learner, Lee quickly became a highly competitive sailor, but more importantly, he was the kind of friend who was always game for anything. When I suggested we should compete for a place on the Olympic team in the Finn class, Lee was all in. We chartered two Finns and started practicing on Lake Lotawana. The Finn is a one-man boat and requires not only skill but strength. We went to our first regatta on a lake in Illinois and did fairly well. Because of our success with that regatta. we decided to compete in the semifinal eliminations for the Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. We were entering the big time.

One of the secrets to sailing a Finn in high winds is to put on as many as four or five sweatshirts, dip your body in the water to get them wet, and use that additional weight to keep the boat upright. Fortunately, class rules required that you also wear a life vest. We were doing fairly well in Atlanta until a huge thunderstorm came up, the race was postponed, and we spent two miserable hours standing in chest-deep water holding the bow of our boats, shivering in spite of the sweatshirts. We both finished in the top half of the fleet but did not make the final Olympic trials.

I talked Lee into chartering a Laser so we could compete in the Laser National Championship that was going to be sailed on Coronado Island near San Diego. Lee and JoAnn met Betty and me at the famous Del Coronado Hotel. The races were held in a huge lagoon about five miles south of the hotel. Since we only had one car and did not want to leave the ladies stranded, every morning, looking like down-and-out bums, wearing multiple sweatshirts, sloppy sailing hats, and with our sail bags and centerboards over our shoulders, Lee and I would hitchhike to the racecourse. We were amazed that hardly a car passed without picking us up. We figured they wanted to know what these strange guys could be doing. 

The sailing on these lagoons was magnificent. They were only separated from the Pacific by a flat stretch of sandy beach, consequently, the wind was constant and steady. It would come in fairly light for the morning races then, as the sand heated up, increase during the day. There were about fifty boats competing and these were some of the best sailors in the country.

I could hold my own on the first weather (upwind) leg but when we rounded the mark for the reaching leg it was a different world. The hotshot sailors could get their boats up on a plane instantly and I would go from second or third down to ninth or tenth in no time at all. It was great sailing and we both learned a lot but found out we still had a lot to learn. 

After that, our sailing adventures were mostly on cruising boats in Mexico, the Caribbean, and one memorable voyage with our friends, Joe and Pam Ross, in Turkey.

When I moved to Aspen, Lee came out with a group from Kansas City on an early-season ski trip. We had a large enough group to reserve the entire Crystal Palace for a pre-opening night performance. Lee and Joanne fell in love with Aspen and purchased a two-bedroom apartment from me in a building I had just completed, the Château Eau Claire. After spending more time in Aspen, they purchased land just outside of town and built a wonderful home. Later they purchased a villa in a project I developed in Puerto Vallarta, Casa McFuego. The family still owns the villa. 

Lee kept their Aspen home after Joanne passed away but finally decided to sell it and move to Kansas City to be close to his kids. It was a sad day in 2016 when Lee died from a fall at the age of 93. We had wonderful years together and I miss him.