John Lyon Collyer

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John Lyon Collyer was born at Chelsea-on-Hudson, New York in 1893 and died in 1979 at Vero Beach, Florida. He was a business executive.

Collyear was born into a family of shipbuilders and boat operators. He attended Cornell University where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity and graduated in 1917 with a degree in mechanical engineering. During these years he was a member and later coach of the crew team. He was also a member of Quill and Dagger.

He took a job with Bethlehem Steel in their Wilmington shipyards. In 1923, he accepted the vice-presidency of the English-owned Dunlop Tire and Rubber Company in Buffalo, New York, and worked his way to the position of co-managing director of Dunlop's international operations. In 1930 he married Georgia Forman Elliot, a widow with two children. Collyer and his wife had a daughter, Georgia, in 1930. At this time he moved to England, continuing to work for Dunlop until 1939, when he moved back to the U.S. to serve as President (1939-1954) and Chairman (1950-1960) of the B.F. Goodrich Co., in Akron, Ohio. He contributed greatly to the development and production of synthetic rubber, a material in great demand in World War II as director of rubber for the War Production Board. Collyer was on the board of directors of several other corporations.

He served as Trustee of Cornell University, including as Board Chair.

In 1956, he gave the Collyer Boathouse on Cayuga Lake inlet. In 1958, Collyer was inducted into the National Rowing Hall of Fame.^[1]