Norwood Labor Leader and Presidential Advisor Kenneth T. Lyons Criticizes Small Business Administration-October 30, 1974

National Association of Government Employees President Advocates for Minority Business Education

Kenneth T. Lyons of 17 Robinwood Road is a recognized powerhouse in national labor and federal policy circles. Serving his second three-year term on the National Advisory Council on Extension and Continuing Education—having been appointed by President Richard Nixon—Lyons is turning his sharp focus toward reforming federal financial assistance for minority business enterprises.

Appalled by what he considers a staggering waste of taxpayer funds, Lyons criticized the Small Business Administration (SBA), noting that while approximately $4 billion has flowed through the agency since 1953, minority-owned businesses have suffered a cumulative loss rate of 33 percent—seven times the rate of all other SBA loan programs.

“The money has been dumped into a great wasteland of failure,” Lyons asserted. Pointing to poor management assistance, inadequate post-loan monitoring, and what he termed “outrageous enterprises” such as financing yacht dealerships or ghetto car showrooms, Lyons argued that simple common sense is frequently ignored.

In the council’s eighth annual report before President Ford and Congress, Lyons recommended channeling federal support to selected postsecondary institutions serving as community resource centers. These centers would provide on-the-spot practical instruction in bookkeeping, inventory control, and business management utilizing local experts.

Ties to U.S. Presidents and Rise of the National Labor Union

Lyons’ journey to the upper echelons of Washington power stems from his role as president of the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), which he helped found in 1961 alongside its affiliates, including the International Brotherhood of Police Officers and the Federal Aviation Science and Technological Association.

Born in Medford and a Navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War who formerly served as a young supervisor at the Boston Naval Shipyard, Lyons cultivated close working relationships with U.S. presidents:

• John F. Kennedy: Connected closely following the 1961 executive order recognizing federal employee unions. (A notable touch of history inside Lyons’ Robinwood Road home: he sits at an oak-inlaid desk formerly owned by Joseph P. Kennedy, father of the late president, captured in feature photography by Paul Thompson).
• Lyndon B. Johnson: Maintained a well-established professional relationship.
• Richard Nixon: Forged a personal friendship after requesting a brief 10-minute meeting to lobby against a 1970 blue-collar pay veto—a discussion that unexpectedly lasted two and a half hours. President Nixon subsequently offered Lyons a White House position, which he politely declined, remarking with a chuckle regarding later political scandals, “If I had said yes, I might be in prison now.”

Under Lyons’ leadership, NAGE has expanded to 1,600 locals nationwide, spanning Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. Underscoring his lifelong dedication to organizing workers, Lyons expressed enthusiastic support for municipal youth unionization efforts, declaring that nationwide labor organizing has “barely scratched the surface.”

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger