Lionel Dahmer graduated from University of Wisconsin in 1959, in 1962 he finished Marquette University, receiving Master of Science. In 1966 he became a graduate of Iowa State University, obtaining Doctor of Philosophy. He served as a senior research chemist at PPG Industries, Barberton, OH, 1960-1962, and research supervisor in analytical chemistry, since 1968. Later he has mainly worked as a writer.
Lionel Dahmer is known for his work A Father's Story. But he gained a fair measure of unwanted media attention as the father of Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer who was convicted in the early 1990s of murdering fifteen youths in the Milwaukee area.