Louis Lyons to Retire in June '64 After 25 Years as Nieman Curator

Louis M. Lyons will retire as curator of the University's Nieman Foundation in June 1964, it was officially confirmed over the weekend. Lyons has been connected with the foundation since its beginning in 1938 and has served as curator since 1939.

The foundation, established in the will of Mrs. Agnes Wahl Nieman, widow of the founder of the Milwaukee Journal, administers the yearly Nieman fellowships.

Under the terms of the will, the fellowships are given to newspapermen throughout the world selected by a University committee. Journalists chosen are able to study at Harvard for a year in any field they desire.

As curator of the foundation, Lyons presides at weekly seminars, organizes the Nieman dinners, and corresponds with the fellowship alumni body. He is also a news commentator on WGBH-TV and has been responsible for much of the University's participation with the educational television station.

Lyons was one of nine American newspapermen selected for the first Nieman fellowships in the academic year beginning September, 1938. A year later he succeeded Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Archibald MacLeish as curator of the Foundation when MacLeish was named head of the Library of Congress.

Lyons is now 65 years old, and his retirment is mandatory under University rules. No consideration has yet been given to a successor as curator of the Foundation.

In 1958, Lyons won a Peabody award for distinguished broadcasting. In the same year, he won the Lauterback Award for "substantial contributions in the field of civil liberties."