Berkeley Still Remembers A Hometown Boy 7 Years After His Death

SOUTH SEASIDE PARK, NJ - John A. Lyons grew up on the sand-dusted streets of South Seaside Park.

He and his friends thumped basketballs on the courts off 24th Avenue. They were a tight-knit group.

John A. Lyons went off to college after he graduated from Central Regional High School in 2003. He earned not one, but two degrees in political science and Latin from Rutgers University in 2008.

Then he enlisted in the Army. He rose to the rank of sergeant. And his short, 26-year-old life came to an end in Afghanistan on Oct. 26, 2011, when he died of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire in Ghazni province, Afghanistan.

John's friends will remember him again on June 2 at the John A. Lyons Memorial Basketball courts on 24th Avenue, where they all played so many times.

The annual "Run to Remember" John event will have three races - a 5k run, 5k speed walk and a 1-mile fun run.

To register for any one of the races, click here. Registration fees for the 5k run and 5k speed walk are $25, plus a $3 race fee. The fee for the fun run is $10. Fees for the 5k races will increase to $30 after May 14. T-shirts for the event are guaranteed until May 20, but are on a first-come, first-serve basis, so sign up soon.

Prizes will be awarded to the top three overall male and female contestants in a number of age groups. Ribbons will be given to all runners.

Lyons' death reverberated through this small town bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Barnegat Bay.
Berkeley Township police and New Jersey State Police escorted his funeral procession down the main streets of South Seaside Park before heading to his wake Timothy E. Ryan Home for Funerals on St. Catherine Boulevard. Hundreds attended the visitation.

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