John Brown Lynch received his B.A. degree from Vanderbilt University in 1949. He then attended the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, receiving his M.D. in 1952. Following graduation, Lynch moved to Texas, where he trained in plastic surgery unedr Truman Blocker and Steve Lewis. He remained on the faculty at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, rising from the ranks of instructor to full professor of surgery by 1973.

Lynch returned to Vanderbilt in 1973 to become professor and chair of the Department of Plastic Surgery, a position he held unitl 1996. He remained on the faculty at Vanderbilt with the rank of professor and continued as director of the Vanderbilt Burn Unit until his retirement to Emeritus Professor in 1998.

Dr. Lynch has been active in numerous medical and surgical societies, having served as consultant and chair to the FDA Advisory Panel on General and Plastic Surgical Devices, president of the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, president of the Southern Medical Association, chair of the Council of the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery section of the American Medical Association, and chair of the American Board of Plastic Surgery.