Arkansas Blog

UAMS NEWS RELEASE

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has received a gift of $2.5 million from Frank and Jane Lyon to its Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics. The donation will be used to create the Thomas and Lyon Longevity Clinic in the UAMS Reynolds Institute on Aging.

Longtime UAMS supporters, the Lyons, of Little Rock, made the gift and named the clinic in memory of their parents, who received care at the Institute on Aging. Jane Lyon also is a member of the Reynolds Institute on Aging Advisory Board.

The endowment established by the gift will support activities including a new frailty and physical disabilities clinic, a caregiver support program and a special behavioral problems clinic. It also will provide support for ReCenter, a health promotion and disease prevention program.

“My father, who died recently at the age of 93, was under the expert care of geriatricians at the Reynolds Institute,” Jane Lyon said. “I am forever grateful that this wellness-based care was available for him, and that it also will be available for each of us. This is a magnificent institution, and I am so happy that we are able to support its programs.”

“My parents also benefited from programs at the Reynolds Institute,” Frank Lyon said.  “It truly makes a difference to have this specialized care available for older adults.  I am pleased that our names will be associated with these innovative programs that make such a difference in the lives of Arkansans.”

Frank and Jane Lyon are members of a prominent Arkansas family whose early business holdings included Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Arkansas, Twin City Bank, the Whirlpool and RCA distributorships for Arkansas and a four-state region, and the 13,000 acre Wingmead Farms. Frank Lyon Jr. owns multiple businesses and serves on the Board of Lyon College, which was named for his father. Jane Thomas Lyon raises thoroughbred horses at the family’s Summer Wind Farm in Kentucky. 

“These two families have played a major role in the state’s growth and will forever be associated with programs that foster the improvement and maintenance of health among older Arkansans. What a fitting legacy for families whose names are synonymous with honor, loyalty and integrity,” said David A. Lipschitz, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the UAMS Department of Geriatrics and director of the Reynolds Institute on Aging.

UAMS Chancellor I. Dodd Wilson, M.D., also expressed his appreciation for the donation. “This legacy of life created by Jane and Frank Lyon perfectly illustrates the very core of the UAMS mission — to provide care for generations of Arkansans who choose to embrace the aging process with good health and service to others,” Wilson said. “The Thomas and Lyon families have given a gift that will live in perpetuity and will transform care for older Arkansans.”

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, six centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has about 2,435 students and 715 medical residents. It is one of the state’s largest public employers with about 9,400 employees, including nearly 1,000 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $5 billion a year. For more information, visit www.uams.edu.