Longtime former Claremont City Council member and mayor Joe Lyons has died. He was 77.

Lyons died Thursday, December 8 surrounded by his loved ones, according to a news release from the city, which has lowered its flags to half-staff in his honor.

“Joe Lyons was so much more than a councilmember and mayor,” Claremont Mayor Jed Leano told the COURIER in a text message. “He was the San Gabriel Valley’s original champion for affordable housing and homelessness, inspiring a new generation of housing and homelessness advocates. Before there was Measure H, Housing Claremont, Inclusive Claremont, or Claremont Tenants United, there was Joe Lyons. We must never stop fighting for Joe’s vision of housing all our neighbors.”

Lyons served on the City Council from March 2011 to November 2018, and as mayor in 2014-15. He was the council representative to Tri-City Mental Health, the Six Basins Water Master Board, the Pomona Valley Transit Authority, the Claremont Committee on Aging, the council’s commission nominating ad hoc committee, Foothill Transit, and the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments.

Lyons, a father of four sons, moved Claremont in 2002. He remained active in the community as a volunteer and advisor until recent health issues curtailed his activity.

A full account of Lyons’ life will appear in next week’s COURIER.