Lyle M. Nelson was the former Vice President for University Relations in 1957 at the University of Michigan. He left the U-M in 1961 to join Stanford University as Director of University Relations. He created the John S. Knight fellowship for professional journalists at Stanford and served as its director in 1969-85. He also was the Thomas M. Storke Distinguished Professor of Communication and head of the communications department there.

He was well known as both a professor of journalism and an expert on the uses of television for educational purposes. He came to Ann Arbor in 1953 as assistant to the president and general secretary of the corporation of the Educational Television and Radio Center, which evolved into the Public Broadcasting Service.

Nelson was born Feb. 28, 1918, in Yamhill, Ore., and graduated from the University of Oregon.

“Former Vice President Lyle Nelson Dies.” University of Michigan News, 11 Sept. 1997, https://news.umich.edu/former-vice-president-lyle-nelson-dies/.