by Angel Perez, Student Reporter
Charity Lyon used to have students write where they hoped to be and what they wanted to do when they were older.
When they had been out of school for five years, she wrote them to tell them she was proud of them and sent them that letter they wrote when they were freshmen.
It reminded them of who they wanted to be, showed them what they had accomplished and helped them realize how much more there was to life than what they once believed.
Several of them wrote back or called to let her know what was going on.
She said with social media, it is so much easier to keep up, and it is so rewarding to share in her students’ adult lives.
“The most satisfying thing as a teacher is when your students go on to become who they were meant to be and dreamed of,” Lyon said.
Lyon is an adjunct instructor in the communication department on the Alva NWOSU campus. Lyon has taught speech at NWOSU for eight years.
She said her mom and dad taught her a strong work ethic, to love God, which is the most important thing in her life, and to be a person of character and be a person of her word. Her mom taught her the power of love. She always told her; “Love what you do and do what you love. Value and respect the people you treat and take care of yourself and others with love.” Her mom and dad are the biggest influence because she always thinks about what her parents would do in the situations or what would they think about things.
Lyon says she wants to be more compassionate, caring, gracious and loving like them.
“She is the best thing that has ever existed in my life,” said Keith Dellenbach, her dad. “I will never complain about her. She has always done things well and followed God’s way.”
In Lyon’s professional career, all the professors had made a big impact on her. Michelle Bores was her television teacher when she came to NWOSU as a student, and she encouraged Lyon so that she continued to be better every day. Sherrill Evans was the dean of the Enid Campus and now is the president at Northern Oklahoma College. She is one of Lyon’s mentors.
“I admire her as a person, character, her personal life and with her family,” Lyon said of Evans.
Now as a teacher at NWOSU, Lyon said her duties include teaching speech classes and supporting teachers and staff.
Another part of being a teacher is helping students and educating them on how to express themselves in front of people. Lyon said her biggest failure is when the students leave and she feels they didn’t understand the material that day.
“A student is the most important person ever in this school,” Lyon said.
To overcome this feeling of failure, Lyon said she tries to express herself in a way that students can understand and share the right information that may be beneficial to them. She also tries to make sure that the next class gets the same information.
Lyon said she then starts thinking about students who might be looking for the same education and don’t have it. She has gained the students’ confidence to choose her as a teacher to educate them.
Devan Dellenbach, her sister-in-law and best friend, said the most admirable quality she finds in Lyon is easily given away by her own name, Charity, which means “love.”
“She embodies countless great qualities as a mother, wife and friend,” Dellenbach said, but as a servant of Christ she most radiantly emits her generous mercy for all those she encounters.”
To have a friend like Lyon when in the darkest dark, can only be a tangible expression of God’s scandalous and reckless love, she said.
“She is a treasure, imperfect and beautifully broken and poured out to all of us who get to call her friend,” Dellenbach said.
Lyon became a speech instructor in August 2012. She said she has been blessed by the staff because they accepted her because she worked hard to get what she wanted. The NWOSU staff is truly happy and ready to work. She also said the university has tremendous teachers to educate students.
Lyon grew up in Greensburg, Kansas. She attended Northwestern Oklahoma State University for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and then went to Oklahoma State University for a doctorate in speech/mass communication.
Lyon has two children that, according to her, are her greatest achievements: her 16-year-old son Blake Lyon, who is in high school and is participating on the football team; and her 14-year-old daughter Liberty Lyon who was born with disabilities and requires a lot of care.
Lyon is married to Travis Lyon, a man she said is her personal hero and is amazing and fascinating. She said he is her best friend, and she admires his morality, his sense of good and evil. When she sees how good he is to her and with everyone around him, it compels her to be a better person too, she said.
“My wife is one of the most important blessings in my life,” Travis Lyon said.
Charity Lyon did not start as a teacher. She started working at Northwestern Sports Information in Alva. After she graduated with a bachelor’s, she narrated all the athletic programs, and updated all the games on the Internet.
NWOSU then helped her pay for her master’s degree. When she finished her master’s degree, she began teaching mass communications and helped students in the television room. Then she had children and changed to being a speech instructor.
Lyon described herself as a happy, optimistic person. She said she tries to make those around her feel happy also. She said if someone is going to infect another with an attitude, why not make it a good one?
“Be kind,” Lyon said. “It doesn’t cost anything to be kind.”
Garry McNeill, Lyon’s pastor, said she is an extremely humble, goal-oriented person and a world traveler. He said she always puts God first over all things.
Her best quality and greatest weakness are trying to see the good in every situation and person. She tries to include people in her friend groups and always she looks for the best in people. People may be surprised that she is a good volleyball player, he said.
McNeill said every time she is with groups and relatives, her personality demonstrates the woman she is and people see how she interacts with others, helps the church and has always been a person who, no matter what happens, goes forward.
“She has a really high level of intelligence and acts professionally in what she is doing,” McNeill said.
He said Lyon’s love for knowledge is something he admires about her. “She has been in college, in the church and she has always worked hard and wants to learn more in and out of school,” McNeill said.
Lyon said she aims to become the best she can be in her work. She learns from her job every day. She said a possible future goal is to travel the world with her family, but now she is focused on becoming the best teacher so that she can give and enjoy her children.
Getting up in the morning to teach and do the best she can is what motivates Lyon to educate others.
Lyon’s hobbies include reading books, spending time with her family, going to church and watching football but hearing the word of God is the most she likes.
“Only God knows my way. Only he knows my destiny and in his hands is my future,” Lyon said.
