Education
Clemson University.
administrator Businessman captain
Clemson University.
He was captain and quarterback of the football team under Coach People’s Warner. After graduation, Lynah worked for DuPont for fifteen years, becoming a plant manager during World War I. He went on to work at General Motors from 1922 to 1929, serving as director of purchasing and manufacturing staff He succeeded Graduate Manager of Athletics Romeyn Berry as the first Director of Athletics at Cornell University from 1935 to 1943.
While serving as athletic director, Lynah led the movement to establish an athletic conference in the eastern United States.
His efforts led to the creation of the Eastern Intercollegiate Athletics agency, which became the modern ECAC. Lynah was succeeded at Cornell by Robert Kane. Lynah Rink is named in his honor.
Lynah left his position at Cornell on indefinite leave to serve as assistant director of the ammunition and light ordnance division of the National Defense Advisory Committee in Washington. He chaired the National Collegiate Athletic Association committee on recruitment beginning in 1944.
Lynah died in South Carolina on February 24, 1956.
Previous winners include Asa Bushnell (1959), Thomas J. Hamilton (1976) and Robert Kane (1977).
Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Lynah transferred from Clemson University to graduate from Cornell University in 1905 where he was a member of the Quill and Dagger society and Sigma Phi. An active alumnus of Cornell University, he was involved in many alumni committees, was chairman of a committee for the development of the College of Engineering and was a member of the College of Engineering Council. He was an inaugural member of the Cornell University Athletic Hall of Fame.
He was also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Political and Social Science, and American Society of Mechanical Engineers.