Louis M. Lyons, renowned newspaper reporter, commentator, and former curator of Harvard's Nieman Foundation, died at Stillman Infirmary Sunday night after a long illness. He was 84 years old.

A member of the Nieman Foundation's first class in 1938. Lyons was appointed the foundation's curator in 1939 and held that position until ill health forced him to retire in 1964. The Nieman Foundation invites journalists to study at Harvard for a year.

"American journalism has lost one of its great mentors," James C. Thomson Jr., current curator of the Nieman Foundation, said yesterday, adding. "Louis Lyons was a national conscience for the profession. He embodied excellence, courage and integrity." Thomson said that even after Lyons retired, he "was constantly in touch with and caring about the Nieman Follows, both the new ones and the alumni."

Lyons was born in Dorchester on September 1, 1897, and grew up on a chicken farm in Plymouth County. He received his bachelor's degree from Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1918 and began working for the Boston Globe the next year. Lyons joined WGBH radio when the station was founded in 1951 and was widely respected for his news commentaries aired on the public radio and television network.

Lyons received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Alfred I. DuPont award in 1964 as the nation's outstanding newscaster, a 1957 George Foster Peabody Award for Broadcasting, the 1959 Richard Lauterbach Civil Liberties award, the 1962 Freedom Foundation Medal, and the Overseas Press Club Citation in 1962.

Former Nieman Fellow Anthony Lewis, a New York Times columnist, wrote earlier this year of Lyons. "In an age of image-making and exploitation, he stands for old-fashioned decency."

Survivors include his wife Catherine, three sons, a daughter, a step-daughter, 15 grand-children, and five great-grandchildren. A memorial service has not yet been scheduled.