A life of generosity

In the 1980s, Ted Lyon’s house on Banner Mountain swarmed with people. They weren’t his family — just anyone who needed a roof over his head.

For years, Lyon allowed as many as 25 unknown homeless people to live in his 6,000-square-foot mansion at any one time — sometimes for as long as six months. A doctor by profession, he’d provide for them, give them clothes and let them use his residence as their own.

Now nearly 90, Lyon lives with three caregivers, two cats and a dog. His house is still bustling with memories of nearly 800 people who lived there through the decades, his estimate.

“They all needed a place to stay,” Lyon said this week, sitting in his living room, dressed in an orange-and-yellow jacket and a beige baseball cap. “Some lacked money, some were poor people. Some would buy food and bring it into the house and share it with others. I, too, provided food for some of them.

“I didn’t control them when they were here, other than preventing damage to my property. They were everywhere — on the porch, downstairs.”

The ground floor, now mostly empty, was once full of beds for the homeless, said Michelle Rose, one of Lyon’s caregivers.

“Lyon’s ministry was helping people,” Rose said. “He’s quite religious and has regular communion with God and consults him on what to do.”

Lyon would go to SPD Market and other local stores to collect food donations for those he sheltered, he said. People donated clothes.

Lyon attributes his generosity to his parents.

“My father was the founder of the Lyon’s moving and storage company in Oakland, and he was also a Rotarian,” he said. “He became a good friend with Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary. I think they talked back and forth, and the more they talked, I think, it made more sense for my father to be generous.

“I was taught to be generous. I never expected anything in return except a ‘thank you.’”

Lyon was born in Oakland in 1918 and raised in Piedmont, in the Bay Area, he said. He had two brothers, one of whom died in World War II. The other, now 91, lives in Napa, he said.

Lyon has five daughters, two of whom live in the area, Rose said. Lyon was married and divorced twice, Rose added.

He still loves to garden and play the piano, Rose said. His attraction for the outdoors is typified by the innumerable skylights, windows and a spacious atrium in the house, which he built.

He walks every morning to the porch to pick up the paper, Rose added.

“He is very, very attached to this house,” Rose said. “That’s why his daughters have made such an effort to maintain this big house.”

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To contact Soumitro Sen,

e-mail ssen@theunion.com or call 477-4229.