REAL ESTATE : Industry Honors Builder Lyon for Leadership, Philanthropy
William Lyon was lauded Monday night for his years of leadership in the home-building industry and for his years of active and often unsung philanthropy in and around Orange County.
The builder made headlines last week when he angered some guests at a South Coast Repertory fund-raiser with a politically incorrect quip about Hillary Rodham Clinton. But there were no protests or complaints at Monday’s event, sponsored by the Building Industry Assn. of Orange County. There, references to the incident were oblique and in defense of Lyon.
The evening focused on the charitable work of the builder, who is also a retired Air Force Reserve general and is referred to by friends, family, employees and associates as Gen. Lyon or just “the General.” Highlights included:
- Msgr. Michael Harris and Santa Margarita Co. President Anthony Moiso telling how Lyon and his wife, Willa Dean, were among the first financial supporters of the building fund for Santa Margarita High School, which opened in 1987 as the first Catholic high school in Orange County in a decade. Lyon, who isn’t a Catholic, wrote a $1.25-million check and then helped persuade other builders and business leaders to kick in. Harris referred to Lyon as “the good Samaritan of Orange County.”
- County Supervisor William G. Steiner relating the enormous expenditure of time and energy Lyon made during his more than 10 years as chairman and a director of the Orangewood Children’s Foundation. The Lyons also contributed $1.25 million to the fund to build the home for abused and abandoned children. But more important than the cash, Steiner said, were Lyon’s fund-raising efforts and advice and counsel during Orangewood’s construction.
- The Rev. John Huffman, pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach and the Lyons’ minister, describing the support the Lyons gave him and his wife as their daughter fought a losing battle with cancer.
In accepting the BIA’s Tribute to Excellence award, Lyon referred to the financial problems afflicting his company--as well as other builders as the regional recession begins its fifth year. Then, quoting from Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s final address to Congress--”Old soldiers never die, they just fade away”--Lyon set his jaw, firmed his voice and said he “is one soldier who is not fading away.”
