Founded in 1872, Lyon College is a four-year college of the liberal arts and sciences associated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The following is the mission statement of the College:

Lyon College, a college of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is a community of higher learning in which persons develop humane instincts, disciplined and creative minds, and reasoned faith through the study of the liberal arts. The College is devoted to the preparation of productive citizens and leaders for Arkansas, the republic, and the world. In carrying out its mission, the College has chosen to be a small, co-educational, undergraduate, residential community of learners emphasizing the teaching and scholarship responsibility of all faculty and the development of analytical and creative thinking among students. Lyon College possesses a rich heritage bequeathed by those who have given generously of themselves to assure an institution of unswerving commitment to intellectual curiosity, independent inquiry, and service.

Accreditation

Lyon College is accredited by the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Its teacher education curriculum is accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and approved by the Arkansas State Department of Education. The College is approved by the State Approving Agency for Veterans’ Training (a division of the State Department of Education). It is a member of the Council on International Education Exchange.

A Brief History of Lyon College

The history of Lyon College is a story of individuals and families who have given generously of their time and resources to create and preserve a distinguished institution of higher learning. Since its beginnings more than a century ago, the College has endured crises that many sister institutions did not survive. Through the support of dedicated people with a vision, the College has grown and prospered, strengthened by the trials of the past, and is now a widely-respected college with high standards and strong programs which have made it a recognized leader among small liberal-arts colleges in the nation.

Founding as Arkansas College, 1872

When it was chartered as Arkansas College on October 24, 1872, the College was already part of a longstanding Presbyterian tradition of interest in education. One of its first trustees, Dr. A. W. Lyon, had come to Arkansas as a Presbyterian missionary and teacher of Native Americans at Dwight Mission in Pope County. His wife served as principal of the Batesville Male and Female Academy, one of the city’s early schools. But the man who brought the College into existence was another dedicated Presbyterian, Dr. Isaac J. Long, a minister who first came to the state in 1866 to assess the conditions and needs of Arkansas’ Presbyterian congregations for the denomination’s Committee on Domestic Missions. While in Batesville, he assisted so impressively in a revival that the next year an interdenominational committee of local citizens called him to the pastorate of First Presbyterian Church.

In early 1872 Long contacted other Presbyterian ministers around the state about the desirability of establishing a church-sponsored high school which would grow into a college. His plan inspired Batesville’s citizens to pledge half the cost of erecting the first college building on a campus near downtown, on the condition that the denominationally-sponsored school be non-sectarian. That policy has been adhered to since the school’s inception.

On September 2, 1872, the school opened with sixty-five students, both male and female, enrolled in classes ranging from elementary school grades to college level. Funding came from student fees and pledges, which were often hard to collect. For the first few years, the College struggled financially, but the first class graduated on schedule in 1876. Dr. Long served as president for over twenty years and was followed by his son, Dr. E. R. Long, a graduate of the College. Without a doubt, the hard work and dedication of the Long family brought the College into being and set it firmly on the path of Christian service.

From the first, the College’s curriculum focused on the traditional liberal arts. College literary societies provided opportunities for extra-curricular activities, furnishing many of the amenities now offered by the College’s active fraternities and sororities. These societies—Philomathean, Erosophic, and L’Etoile—also produced regular programs of orations, recitations, debates, and plays, and encouraged the writing of essays, short stories, and poetry. Collegiate athletics began around the turn of the century with basketball (in which the College fielded both men’s and women’s teams), tennis, and baseball. Basketball and, more recently, track have compiled successful records, producing state champions and individual all-Americans.

Years of Challenge

By 1920, the College was outgrowing its campus in a residential neighborhood near downtown Batesville. President W. S. Lacy acquired seventy acres in east Batesville for expansion and built a large dormitory there. During a decade of growth, the number of departments and professors increased, and dormitories filled as enrollment steadily increased. Seniors were sought by the best graduate schools in the country. The Great Depression, however, nearly brought the school down, as deficit budgets propelled indebtedness to over $200,000 by 1930.

Early in 1931, the College faced its greatest challenge. The Synod of the Presbyterian Church, seeing no way for the school to reduce its enormous debt, voted to close it and sell the property. Realizing its value to the community, the citizens of Batesville held mass meetings and came up with a plan. Local people pledged to raise $10,000 a year for five years to support the annual budget if the Synod would assume the College’s debt and keep it open as an institution of the Church. The Synod reopened the question, voted again, and the College was saved. Its existence remained precarious for several years: the payroll was often delayed, local merchants sometimes had to pay their pledges with merchandise, and students gave promissory notes for tuition. But through the generosity of Hot Springs trustee Allen Brown, his sister Jean, and his brother W. C., Jr.; the leadership of such men as Dr. John D. Spragins, who served as president from 1942 to 1952; and the extraordinary efforts of local citizens, College faculty, staff, administration, and students, the College pulled through. Despite financial woes, the quality and rigor of the academic program remained a beacon of excellence in higher education for the state and the region.

The post-war period began a new era as returning GIs produced record enrollments, which led to the acquisition of another hundred acres in east Batesville at the site of a former Masonic orphanage. Under the leadership of Dr. Paul McCain, president from 1952 to 1969, a significant building program at this site created the core of the present-day campus. The visionary leadership of the Board of Trustees, and especially its chairman, Mr. Shuford R. Nichols, produced a continuing drive for academic excellence within a strong liberal arts tradition. The College gradually moved from a school dedicated mainly to serving a local constituency to a school of regional renown.

A Drive for Excellence

The College was struck a staggering blow in 1973 when a tornado damaged or destroyed several buildings. The new president, Dr. Dan C. West, undertook another ambitious building program to repair the damage and add new buildings. During his administration, dedicated alumni, trustees, and other friends of the College made significant gifts which dramatically increased the endowment, most notably a $14.6 million bequest from the same Miss Jean Brown who had helped save the College during the Depression. A new chairman of the Board, Mr. Frank Lyon, Sr., brought keen business acumen to the management of college finances as the institution’s endowment grew to more than $40 million. Of even greater significance during this period was the development of a faculty of national stature, dedicated to teaching and active in scholarship. Today, graduates of the College are sought by the nation’s leading graduate and professional schools, and go on to careers of distinction in law, medicine, education, banking, and business.

Under the leadership of President John V. Griffith, who served in that office from 1989 to 1997, the College gained broader recognition as an outstanding liberal arts college. It implemented an ambitious Strategic Plan in 1990, undertook a major restructuring of its curriculum, reinstated an academic Honor System, and became a primarily residential college. As part of a process of building the College into a liberal arts institution of national distinction, the Board of Trustees voted on February 23, 1994, to change the name of Arkansas College to Lyon College. That decision honored the extraordinary service rendered to the College by Mr. Frank Lyon, Sr., and his family for nearly half a century.