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Robert Lyle III was born in Boston, Mass., on Sept. 5, 1921, and passed away in Dallas on Jan. 13, 2002. He was educated in the public schools of Pawtucket, R.I. and Boston, Mass., graduating from Hyde Park High School, Hyde Park, Mass. in 1939. In January 1943, he received his B.S. degree with Honors in Chemistry from Boston University and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.
An Army veteran, he was assigned to the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge, Tenn., during World War II. He was employed as a researcher in the wire and cable industry for 50 years. In the 1950s, he worked for General Electric Company in Schenectady, N.Y., where he was awarded a patent for his early work on silicone chemistry. He then worked as the laboratory manager of the National Electric Company in Ambridge, Pa. and later as manager of the Laboratory of the Thermoid Division of H.K. Porter Co. in Pittsburgh, Pa., and for Simplex Wire and Cable Co. in Cambridge, Mass. He came to Marshall in 1969, and worked in the Alcoa Research Laboratories, where he was the inventor of patented cable products.
After retirement, he was a consultant to CPI (now General Cable) in Marshall, where he developed the standard for electrical testing of high voltage polyethelene insulation for the Electrical Power Research Institute. After he retired from consulting in the mid-1990s, a research laboratory building at CPI was named in his honor. He was elected to Sigma Xi, a National Scientific Honorary Society. He was saved at the age of eight during a revival at the First Baptist Church of Hyde Park, Mass., where he was baptized. He later served as chairman of the Executive Committee and as Sunday school teacher. On June 26, 1954, he married Isabel Duncan Smart at the First Baptist Church of Hyde Park. In 1956, he was ordained an elder of the Presbyterian Church. Since 1970, he has been a member of the First Baptist Church of Marshall, where he served for many years as a Deacon and Sunday school teacher. He was also a 50-year member of the Masons.
After his retirement from consulting, Bob continued to serve his church and care for his family. In 1998, he and Isabel moved to Dallas to be closer to their children and granddaughter.
He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Isabel D. Lyle; a son, Robert Lyle IV; a daughter, Margaret I. Lyle; a granddaughter, Elise Lyle Miller, all of Dallas; his cousins, Lydia Hunter and Gilchrist and Dorothy Garvey of Rhode Island; one brother-in-law and his wife, John and Georgiana Smart of Buzzards Bay, Mass.; one sister-in-law and her husband, Margaret Smart Mackiernan and Malcolm W. Mackiernan of Richmond, Va.; many nieces and nephews; and many cousins in Scotland.
Graveside services were held at 11 a.m. Friday, Jan. 18, 2002, at the Fort Worth Dallas National Cemetery, Lane B, 2000 Mountain Creek Parkway, Dallas, Texas, with the Rev. Jerry Spivey officiating.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Lone Star Chapter, 2105 Luna Road, Suite 390, Carollton, Texas 75006, or to the First Baptist Church of Marshall. Funeral arrangements will be through Eastgate Funeral Home in Garland.
