Lyman Sessions Willardson was born in Ephraim, Utah on May 10, 1927 to Lyman Young Willardson and Alice Sessions. He attended Snow Junior College graduating in 1948 with an Associate of Science degree in engineering. On October 8, 1948 he married Vivian Berrey in Evanston Wyoming and together they had six children. Lyman obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering with a speciality in irrigation from Utah State Agricultural College in 1950. After graduation, Lyman worked for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service in Logan while working towards a master's degree. In 1952 he moved with his family to the Dominican Republic to accept a position as an irrigation engineer with the United Fruit Company. He joined the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Puerto Rico where he conducted irrigation and drainage research from 1954 to 1957. He returned to Logan, Utah as a research irrigation engineer with Utah State University. In 1965 he attended Ohio State University completing a Ph.D. in agricultural research. He then moved to Imperial Valley in California where he continued to work in irrigation and drainage engineering research for the Agricultural Research Service in the USDA. In 1974 Willardson returned to Logan becoming a professor of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering at Utah State University. He officially retired in 1994 but continued to teach and conduct research until the spring of 2005. He passed away on October 5, 2005.