Memories of K. Margaret Lyons ’49 

By Karen McQuigge ’90 

“Who are you?” 

Those were the first words Margaret Lyons ever said to me. It’s not often you remember that kind of thing, but then Margaret was impressively memorable. 

We met because I was a relatively new member of the Alumni Office team and Margaret was already one of the McMaster Alumni Association’s most dedicated volunteers. On the day we spoke for the first time, we were both early arrivals – she was always early – for an Alumni Association board meeting. She asked me a few pointed questions, sized up my responses, found that I passed some sort of muster and then went to the sandwich tray where she hunted her favourites. 

As it would turn out, this interaction was quintessentially Margaret. 

A member of the McMaster Class of ’49 (like her husband Ed Lyons), Margaret enrolled here because Hamilton was one of the few cities and McMaster was one of the few universities in the country that were welcoming to Japanese Canadians following World War II. She would quickly become one of the most active and accomplished students of her era, graduating as a winner of the Honour M. She remained connected to her alma mater during the decades of her distinguished career in radio and was an early inductee into the McMaster Alumni Gallery in 1984. She was even a member of the McMaster Board of Governors while she was still working in Toronto for CBC. But it was her retirement in 1991 that kicked off the greatest chapter in Margaret’s relationship to McMaster, a period that saw her serve as one of the University’s leading volunteers and philanthropists until her death in 2019. 

In her retirement, we asked her to join the McMaster Alumni Association Board of Directors as a Senate Representative and she quickly established a reputation for her devoted attendance, thorough preparation and exceptional insight, intellect and knowledge. She also displayed a remarkable distain for BS in any form. If she suspected she wasn’t hearing the full story or was receiving skewed information or advice, she sniffed it out with the practiced ability of a career journalist and was never shy about asking the kinds of questions that would put someone – deservedly – on the spot. At the same time, she was quick to recognize great ideas and talented people and support them enthusiastically. 

One of the ideas she supported was philanthropy. She understood better than most the important role that charitable giving plays in building and sustaining an outstanding university and supporting individual students. She was a trailblazer in championing planned giving at a time when that type of philanthropy had a low profile in Canada. Her engagement with our planned giving team helped make McMaster a national leader in the field. She also served as a director of the McMaster University Foundation and a leader of the Class of ’49 reunion and gift planning committee. 

Her gifts to McMaster also established a legacy, of course, including the gift that founded what is now the Lyons New Media Centre. She and her husband Ed supported visionary projects like the Centre as well as more nuts-and-bolts, but incredibly valuable initiatives like the Humanities Communication Centre Work Endowment to provide employment opportunities for students with financial need. 

Still, for all of Margaret’s CV-style bullet points, what I remember most is her character and personality. I loved, for example, the way she and Ed played off each other. They were both Mac graduates, but there were times when Ed seemed comfortable letting people think that he was just along for the ride … or more accurately, the drive. He would drive Margaret from Toronto to Hamilton for every meeting, every reception, every dinner. For the meetings, Ed would usually disappear somewhere on campus to entertain himself in some intellectual pursuit, but if there was a social aspect to the event, he would be at Margaret’s side, quietly letting his wife have the spotlight that naturally found her on most occasions. He would bide his time until he decided he had something to say and it was always an insightful or witty comment that revealed his own exceptional knowledge and intellect, while accentuating why he and Margaret were such terrific partners. 

Margaret earned two of McMaster University’s highest honours. She received an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1996 and the McMaster Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Award in 2014. At the event celebrating the latter achievement, Margaret stood at a microphone that we had to lower to match her physical stature and she talked about the University she encountered as a first-year student nearly seven decades before. “Today, that little university is among the greats in the country with international ranking,” she said. “It has broken new ground in disciplines unheard of in those years, but it remains true to its mission to launch its students into a life of continuous learning and seeking, and of service. … We the volunteers hope we can lend more than a cheering section for this continuing work, to repay a fraction of the gift we received.” 

Margaret absolutely repaid that gift. McMaster is much the better for her involvement and it was a privilege to know her and to have a front-row seat to her engagement with our shared alma mater.  

In 1992, Margaret Lyons graciously donated some of the Japanese artwork she has collected over her lifetime to the McMaster Museum of Art. Displayed below are titles of some of her most famous donated works; please click any of the links below to find the full collection, housed under the label "Japanese Prints from Margaret Lyons".