Lord was awarded the President's Certificate of Merit in 1948 by Harry S. Truman in recognition of his work during WWII.
From 1957 to 1961, he served as a member and president of the Commission of Molecular Spectroscopy of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and during 1964 was president of the Optical Society of America.
In 1966, he received the Award in Spectroscopy from the Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Society, and in 1967, he was made an honorary member of the Society of Applied Spectroscopy.
In 1976, he was awarded the Lippincott Medal by the IUPAC.
Lord served as a consultant to the Central Research Department of DuPont between 1948 and 1980, and as editor in the field of optics for the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He died on April 29, 1989.