Saturday, April 4, 2020
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Our Dad passed on, this morning, March 24, 2020.
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He was larger than life in his day. Born in sportsman's paradise, Louisiana, he loved hunting and fishing.
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He became a Professor of Microbiology at then, Pan American College in Edinburg, Texas and taught there for 17 years.
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About the recent crisis, he counseled that warm soapy water kills viral membranes and scoffed at the hand sanitizer craze.
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Always eager to try new things, he became the first scuba instructor in the Rio Grande Valley.
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He taught us to love nature and the way ecosystems balanced. His love of learning was contagious. He even became an accomplished underwater photographer.
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He was a magnetic leader and drew people to him. He relished the role of teacher and loved to pontificate at the podium.
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He could be tender one minute and extremely harsh the next. But he softened with age and became a friend of Bill's. He helped others find a new path.
He was a spiritually sensitive soul and that's where we connected best, when he wasn't telling me how to do better. The beauty of aging myself was being able to laugh about it with him.
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I know he was proud of my brother and I. He bragged to others, but rarely to us. But his body was tired and his heart gave out. I celebrate his freedom.
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The beautiful thing about a full life, even if lived hard, is the conversion to pure love.
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I bear witness to the lovable fallible, flawed beauty of Donald Jerry Lyles Sr. I was blessed to be his daughter.
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"Soar and shine Papa. I will see you on the other side -- now in a mirror dimly, but surely, in the Gulf porpoise and sunsets or in the breezes at the tree line when I travel to the mountains."
Friends, given the current public health crisis, we may not hold a memorial service for a few months. In the meantime, in lieu of flowers please give to the UTRGV's Coastal Lab Designated Fund or UTRGV Art Department Scholarships, Children's Advocacy Center of Cameron and Willacy Counties
#utrgvcsl #caccwc #istandupforkids
