Major General Robert Lynn turned a stint in the trenches as a member of the Youngstown State football team into a successful career in the United States Army.
Lynn played for Coach Dwight Beede’s crew from 1950 through 1953 and later turned into a great leader himself spending 33 years in the U.S. Army before retiring as a Major General.    Â
In 1950, he played as a guard on the Freshmen Football Team that went undefeated.
His sophomore season he played tackle in his first year with the varsity. As a junior and a senior, he played center and linebacker. He was also the placekicker and in 1952, played a huge part in a victory over Baldwin-Wallace.
In the game, he scored with 49 seconds left picking up a fumbled extra-point snap and running it into the end zone in YSU’s 13-12 victory. At the conclusion of the contest, he was carried off the field.
In 1953, the Penguins posted an impressive 7-1 mark, with a three-point loss to Waynesburg as the only blemish on the record.
Lynn earned his degree in Education from Youngstown in 1954 and as a member of the ROTC program on campus, he was commissioned as a second Lieutenant that same year.
He turned his degree into developing the first physical education program in an elementary school in the Boardman School District as a teacher at West Boulevard Elementary School during the 1954-55 school year.
He received his Masters Degree equivalent from the U.S. Army War College in 1973 and is a graduate of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1987. Youngstown State awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Military Science in 1982.
Overall, he spent a total of 33 years in the Military achieving rank of Major General in U.S. Army, the first YSU graduate to attain that rank.
During his years of service, he was elected to serve a six-year term as a member of the board of directors of the Military Officers Association of America, a national non-profit corporation dedicated to aid active duty and retired military personnel of the various Military Services to include their dependents and survivors and to present their rights and interests when service matters are under consideration.
Lynn has always found time to be part of Youngstown State. In 1982, he was the Winter Commencement speaker. At the dedication for Beede Field in 1983, he was selected to represent all football players presenting the keynote address at the ceremony. In 1993, his alma mater recognized him as a distinguished alumnus.
A graduate of New Brighton High School in New Brighton, Pa., he played right guard and was selected to play in the Beaver County All-Star game as a senior. He also lettered in basketball at New Brighton.
Bob and his wife of more than 50 years, Janet, reside in Melbourne, Fla. They are parents of three children, Pamela, Alan and William. Alan is a Colonel in the U.S. Army.
