Donald Lyday Obituary

Part-time area resident the Rev. Donald Chester Lyday died Saturday, July 14, 2012, in Bayfield. He was 80.

Known as "Don," he was born to Henry Myron and Mary Evelyn Wilson Lyday on Sept. 5, 1931, in Los Angeles.

He attended Los Angeles schools, going on to earn a bachelor of science in zoology from the University of California at Los Angeles. After spending two years in the Army, he attended McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.

On Aug. 2, 1953, he married Jayne Elois Black in Westwood, Calif.

Mr. Lyday's first calling was to minister to the Presbyterian congregations in Ignacio and Allison from 1959 to 1967. After leaving Colorado, the Lyday family moved first to Salt Lake City and then to Placentia, Calif.

In 1972, Mr. Lyday changed his career to teaching, ultimately retiring from the Fullerton Unified School in Fullerton, Calif., in 1998.

Although he left Colorado in 1967, his family said, "Colorado never left Don or his family." He continued to own property on both the Animas (near Needleton) and Los Pinos rivers, spending many summers and part of the year in the area during his retirement.

During his retirement Mr. Lyday also enjoy fishing, his dogs, traveling in his RV around the country visiting friends, researching his genealogy and visiting a favorite village several hundred miles down the coast in Mexico.

Mr. Lyday is survived by his wife of 58 years, Jayne Lyday, of Bayfield and California; daughter, Pamela Sue Savage, of Bayfield; sons Steven Paul Lyday of San Clemente, Calif., John Theodore Lyday of La Mirada, Calif., and Christopher Scott Lyday of Brentwood, Calif.; brother Richard "Dick" Wilson Lyday of Honolulu; sister, Janyce Lyday Gerber, of Walnut Creek, Calif.; four grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.

A funeral will be held at 3 p.m. today, July 18, 2012, at the Allison Community Presbyterian Church, 2724 County Road 329. The Rev. Alan Te Brink will officiate. A private family burial will take place afterward at Pine River Cemetery in Bayfield.

Online condolences may be sent at www.hoodmortuary.com.