Waldo K. Lyon

Waldo Kampmeier Lyon (May 19, 1914 – May 5, 1998) was the founder and chief research scientist for the U.S. Navy of the Arctic Submarine Laboratory at the Naval Electronics Laboratory.

He retired in 1996 after 55 years of government service. During his career he advised top Navy officials on essential matters of national defense and was personally thanked by Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy for his efforts.

For 51 years, Dr. Lyon worked for Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego (SSC San Diego) and its predecessor organizations. Dr. Lyon started work there less than a year after its June 1940 establishment as the Navy Radio and Sound Lab, as their first Ph.D. physicist. He was charged with forming and directing initial efforts of the Sound Division. The lab was used during World War II for testing, repairing and modifying submarine equipment and harbor defense systems in the Pacific Ocean. During the war, German U-boats in the Gulf of St. Lawrence were undetectable, because sonar failed under the surface ice. Dr. Lyon addressed this problem by designing and testing sonar and oceanographic equipment for the submarine USS Boarfish and participating in the ship's first under-ice dives.

His recommendation initiated an effort that would last over four decades.

In 1947 Dr. Lyon became head of the Naval Electronics Laboratory's, Submarine Studies Branch in the Research Division.

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