The Texas Rangers issued the following statement today on the passing of former team executive Norman Lyons, who died on Friday night after a long illness at the age of 73.
"The Texas Rangers organization is deeply saddened by the passing of Norm Lyons. Mr. Lyons joined the Rangers organization in July 1993 as the team's first Vice President of Community Development. Over the next 17 years before his retirement in November 2009, he touched thousands of lives in that role.
Mr. Lyons is largely responsible for creation and growth of the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation and numerous other community programs funded and operated by the team. He was a great ambassador for the club and represented the Rangers in every corner of our community.
He is the only two-time recipient of the Rangers' Jim Sundberg Community Achievement Award, earning that honor in 2003 and again at the time of his retirement in 2009. Mr. Lyons continued to be a community leader after leaving the team and had served as the coordinator of the City of Arlington Community Relations Committee for the last year. He was honored by City of Arlington with a proclamation declaring Norm Lyons Day in the City on December 12, 2017.
At the time of his retirement from the Rangers, Mr. Lyons made the following comments:
'Working with the Texas Rangers and the Foundation gave me the opportunity to meet some wonderful people I never would have met. It has kept me grounded and thankful for my life. It has given me so many different experiences and perspectives on life. I got the better of the deal.'
The Rangers were the ones who benefited from Mr. Lyons' exemplary career with the organization. We express our deepest sympathies to Mr. Lyon's family and friends and we share their great loss."