‘HALF OF THE WORLD WAS TOUCHED BY HIM’
Popular Billerica dentist helped push wheelchair-bound competitor in Boston Marathon
Bryan Lyons didn’t know he would only live 50 years.
But he passionately lived like he was well aware his clock was always ticking, cramming a mind-boggling amount of achievements, relationships and memories into that half century.
Award-winning dentist. Marathon runner. Triathlete. Standup comedian. Teacher. Loving son. Compassionate citizen.
He was all of these and more. Dr. Lyons, who was found dead in his Methuen home on
May 31, was best known in the Lowell area for being a Billerica dentist for 25 years, most of those years as the founder and owner of Lyons Dental Associates on Boston Road.
“He loved people and everyone loved Bryan,” his mother, Pat, said from the Nashua, N.H., home where she and her husband, John, raised their four children. “He had a heart as big as this house. He had the most amazing smile. He would light up a room.”
Lyons will be buried today at Pinewood Cemetery in Nashua, not far from where he grew up.
Lyons apparently died in his
sleep. He appeared to have been in perfect health, even running 12 miles shortly before his death.
A couple of days before his death, he helped his mother with a variety of chores, including setting up umbrellas so his father, who is battling Alzheimer’s disease, could sit by the pool under shade. At some point, John Lyons called Bryan by his name. That night, he talked by phone with his girlfriend, Sandy Lehane.
“He said, ‘ I’m going to bed with a happy heart. My dad called me by my name today,’ ” Lehane later told Pat Lyons.
Lyons had recently replaced all the carpets inside Lyons Dental Associates. He was preparing for the day his practice could reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. He wanted it to be spotless.
One of his former employees said Lyons became an institution in Billerica and in the dentistry world with the way he treated his patients and staff.
“He’s my favorite,” an emotional Anne Grenier said. “He was very professional, very calm. His patients absolutely loved him. He had a heart of gold. Dentists have a lot of stress. He just kept it under wraps. He was the best dentist in Billerica.”
Grenier, who served as a dental hygienist under Lyons for a half dozen years, said she’s still “mortified” by his sudden passing.
“He was great. He was in the best years of his life. He had a beautiful girlfriend. His business was great,” she said. “There’s no rhyme or reason. I guess heaven needed another angel.”
Grenier lives near Lyons Dental Associates and would often drive by when Lyons was in the parking lot. He would turn and greet her with “his big, beautiful smile,” Grenier said.
Lyons was a member of the ski and soccer teams at Nashua High School before enrolling at the University of New Hamp
shire. After graduating from UNH, he attended the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine.
His career path was never in doubt.
“I can remember when he was five or six years old he wanted to be a dentist,” his mother said.
To his loving nieces and nephews, he was Uncle Hermey, named after the elf who wanted to become a dentist in the 1964 film “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
One of his patients, Diane Matte, wrote a tribute to Lyons on social media.
“I have been fortunate to have known him for 15 years as one of his patients. This is a very sad time for his family, staff and friends and I offer my sincere and heartfelt condolences to all. He was a very kind and gentle person dedicating himself to all who were in his care,” Matte wrote.
While studying at Tufts, Lyons, always a gregarious sort, began doing stand-up comedy. Pat Lyons remembers watching her son perform at clubs in Boston and Manchester, N.H.
“He made the crowds laugh. He’s always been outgoing,” she said, adding she was “kind of disappointed” when he stopped his comedy routine.
After graduating from Tufts in 1995, Lyons became a dentist in Billerica, beginning a quartercentury of fixing smiles and warming hearts. During his early days in Billerica, he found time to teach a Dental Hygienist class at Middlesex Community College.
Pat Lyons remembers visiting her son’s practice. Patient after patient raved about her son.
“They had no idea who I was. I was just walking on a cloud,” she said.
His dentistry work made him popular in the Billerica area. His
running and big heart gained him national and international acclaim.
Lyons finished 11 Boston Marathons. He completed many triathlons. He once even swam the challenging San Francisco Bay from the famous Alcatraz prison during a competition.
On Feb. 6, 2001, he was driving home from work when his car was hit by a drunk driver in Billerica.
He had to undergo months of rehab. It took him 11 months to be able to run one mile. In typical fashion, however, Bryan Lyons would not be stopped.
In 2009, he ran the Boston Marathon for Team Hoyt and struck up a relationship with Dick and Rick Hoyt.
The Hoyts gained legendary status around the world for their inspirational story. Dick Hoyt pushed his son, who was born a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy, through countless races and 32 Boston Marathons.
During a February 2014 phone call, Dick Hoyt said he was getting too old. He needed someone younger to push his son in his custom racing wheelchair. Accomplished marathon runners lobbied to be chosen. But Dick Hoyt wanted Lyons.
“My friends told me (the Hoyt’s) don’t want the big name, they want the big heart. If that’s the least that I can provide, I’m happy,” Lyons told The Sun during an interview prior to the 2015 Boston Marathon.
Lyons and Rick Hoyt forged a tight bond. When Rick Hoyt wasn’t available to train, Lyons would load the wheelchair with two 60-pound sand bags to simulate Rick’s weight. Lyons pushed Rick across the Boston Marathon finish line in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. In 2019, Rick Hoyt was ill, so Lyons ran from Hopkinton to Boston on his own.
Lyons earned worldwide acclaim for taking over for Dick Hoyt and for his relationship with Rick. But he never let any notoriety go to his head.
His mother can remember walking the streets of Boston with him when they would be approached by a person asking for money.
Her son would never offer any cash. Instead, he would invite the person to grab a sandwich with them, which he would pay for.
“I was blown away,” Pat Lyons said.
She said her son, who never married, had purchased a ring and was on the verge of proposing to Lehane, Lyons’ girlfriend of two years.
It’s one of the many things which prompt her voice to crack when she speaks of her son.
“Always a smile. I never heard him swear. I never heard him say anything bad about anybody, even when things weren’t going his way,” Pat Lyons said.
She takes comfort in the fact that her son crammed several lifetimes into his 50 years.
“I always knew he was a special kid. But as a man I think half of the world was touched by him,” his mother said.