About Lyman S. Ayres II
Lyman Skinner Ayres II (July 5, 1908 – December 28, 1996) was president of L. S. Ayres and Company from 1954 to 1962 and its chairman of the board from 1962 to 1973. The flagship store in the Ayres family's Midwestern retail department store chain was founded by his grandfather, Lyman S. Ayres, in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1872. == Early life and education == Born on July 5, 1908, in Indianapolis, Indiana, Lyman Hoegh Ayres was the eldest child of Alma (Hoegh) and Frederick Murray Ayres Sr. Lyman's two siblings were a sister, Anne (1910), and a brother, Frederic M. Ayres Jr. (1913) Lyman II grew up in Indianapolis. At the age of twenty-one, he replaced his middle name with the initial S. Lyman II graduated cum laude from Yale University. He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific during World War II. Lyman's grandfather, Lyman S. Ayres, a dry goods merchant from Oswego, New York, founded the L. S. Ayres retail department store in Indianapolis in 1872. Lyman II's father, Fred, was president of the family's department store business from 1896 until 1940. == Marriage and family == On September 22, 1934, Ayres married Isabel Ferguson, the daughter of Eliza and Homer L. Ferguson. Isabel's father was president and chairman of the board of Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Newport News, Virginia.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.