Laurance Mastick Hyde Jr.

Judge Laurance M. "Larry" Hyde devoted his career to the education of the American judiciary. A circuit court judge in St. Louis, he enrolled in the inaugural class of the National College of State Trial Judges in 1964, and in 1965 he was appointed the permanent dean of what became the National Judicial College on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno. He led the College from 1965 to 1974, and it was during this tenure in Nevada that he was admitted to the Nevada bar on October 10, 1967. The son of Laurance Mastick Hyde Sr., a justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri, he brought a deep family tradition of judicial service to his work.

As dean, Judge Hyde helped shape a national institution dedicated to training trial judges, with teaching interests that centered on ethics and criminal law. In 1975 he was named the first dean of the Nova University Center for the Study of Law in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He returned to the National Judicial College in 1987 as associate dean, continuing in that role until his retirement in 1991. Even in retirement he remained active in judicial education, teaching in a program for Costa Rican judges in 1994.

Judge Hyde died on April 25, 2022, at the age of 94. He was remembered by the National Judicial College for his lasting contributions to judicial education and for the institution he helped build in Reno.