R. R. H. (Roy Richard Henry) Lemon was born on July 13, 1927 in England. He served in the Royal Air Force at the end of World War n, working in air photo interpretation. Following his service, he pursued a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Wales, which he completed in 1951. Thereafter, he moved to Canada, where he completed both a Master of Arts degree (1953) and a Doctorate degree (1956) at the University of Toronto. He also became a Canadian citizen. Upon receiving his doctorate, Dr. Lemon served as a geologist for the British Colonial Geological Survey in Ghana from 1956 to 1957. He was also employed by Texaco, during which time he worked out of Trinidad, covering Central and South America. From 1958 to 1959 Dr. Lemon taught, as an assistant professor, at Queen's University in Kingston. In the spring of 1959 he married his wife, Mary Lemon, whom he had met overseas (she was teaching English). Together, they adopted Christopher, their only child. Following his employment at Queen's, Dr. Lemon worked as a curator with the Royal Ontario Museum, which he joined in September 1957. He began his work as an assistant curator and was later promoted to associate curator of the Department of Invertebrate Paleontology. While performing his duties as a curator, Dr. Lemon also taught courses at the University of Toronto as a special lecturer. In 1969, Dr. Lemon and his family moved to Florida where he joined the Geography Department at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Dr. Lemon founded the University’s Geology Program and was chair of the Program (which later became a Department) [rom 1973-1992. He retired in 1998.
Dr. Lemon was a member of the Museums Association, the Geological Society of America, the Canadian Paleontological Association, the International Paleontological Union, and a fellow of the Geological Society of London. In the course of his career he published numerous articles in academic journals and authored several monographs. After his retirement, Dr. Lemon moved to the Gainesville area of Florida. He passed away on February 22, 2001 from complications following surgery.